


The Night Sky

by Rhythmi



Category: Sword Art Online, Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Loooooots of crying, M/M, More tags to be added as I spiral into the insanity I put these poor characters through, Pining, Romance, Smut, Theyre a pair of clumsy idiots, YujiKiri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:01:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 39,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26989453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhythmi/pseuds/Rhythmi
Summary: SAO Alicization if Kirito and Eugeo were to fall in love!My very own twist on the stories events, with some original events sprinkled in.NOTE: Currently working on outlining this story! This fic is on hiatus for now and some parts may end up being rewritten.
Relationships: Eugeo & Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito, Eugeo/Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito
Comments: 22
Kudos: 120





	1. The Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirito finds himself in the forest, and Eugeo finds someone unconscious.

To say that Kirito was confused was an understatement. 

He looked up to the sky, which was a miraculous shade of blue. The branches of the trees around him fluttered in the wind, almost appearing as though their shaking was fanning the clouds further away into the distance. It almost looked too perfect… as if it was designed by a person instead of Mother Nature.

He felt himself be even more confused. Was this a game or real life? He moved his hand in front of his face and examined it. It looked real, but he couldn’t be sure. The line between virtual reality and the real world was extremely thin when it came to being able to spot the difference these days. Modern technology is incredible, but also terrifying in the sense that if you were placed in a virtual world, you may not even realize it. 

Kirito wondered if that was the scenario he was currently in. 

The scenery wasn’t what confused him, in fact it was beautiful. More beautiful than the nature he’d always see out of the window in his bedroom(which is really the only nature he’d see as he didn’t leave his bedroom often). No, he was more confused that he woke up in the forest with no memory to how he actually got there. 

Well, that would be confusing to anyone, frightening even. 

He sat up and scanned the area for anything familiar as he tried to think to the last thing he could remember. He remembered he went to Agils bar with Sinon and Asuna— Asuna was trying to set him up on another date. He groaned internally, he knew that having his ex-girlfriend try to find him a new love interest was pathetic, but it wasn’t  _ his  _ choice! It was obvious what she was trying to do, since he had distanced himself from her and the rest of their friends, she did this in an attempt to get the Kirito she once knew back... the hero she once knew.

But he just wasn’t that guy anymore. 

Kirito remembered that he had gone to walk Asuna home after she set up that surprise date. They had only made it halfway back to her house before—

Kirito's blood ran cold as he finally remembered… they were attacked. Johnny Black, one of the members of laughing coffin, had approached them on a side road and stabbed him. He quickly felt around his chest for any sign of a wound, to which he found none. There was nothing. Had he missed? Kirito swears he remembered a white searing pain in his chest before he had passed out. 

And then he remembered… Asuna. 

_ What the hell happened to Asuna?! _

Kiritos chest constricted in his panic as he tore himself from the grass and darted aimlessly around the forest, looking for something, _anything_ that would tell him where he was and where he could find Asuna to see if she was alright. Suddenly, the thoughts inside his head crashed as an involuntary sob ripped from his throat, his back slamming into the trunk of a ginormous tree. The entire world closed in around him in that moment, he began to hyperventilate, his body... _he couldn’t feel anything!_

** *THWACK* **

A piercing ringing sound shredded through his skull and he desperately tried to cover his ears, but his hands remained frozen at his sides. The thoughts raced through his mind faster than he could hope to process: Did Asuna escape the attack? If she didn’t— is she still alive? He reached his emotional breaking point at the mental image of Asuna dying cold and alone at the hands of Johnny Black, now outwardly sobbing as he  tried  to move his body, but was glued to the trunk of the tree. After a moment, his legs gave out, his boots skidding out on the dusty dirt before he hit the ground beneath him hard.

** *THWACK* **

Waves of nausea washed over him as it hit him that this world  could  be virtual. This could possibly be the Underworld— the simulated world created by RATH. His body...  _ a glitch_ _!_ His sobs grew louder as he tried to call out to Higa, Kikuoka,  _ anyone  _ to stop the dive, but found that his lips were frozen, too. The words were caged behind his lips:  _ There’s something wrong! I can’t move! My body is numb! Please!!! _

Tears ran down his cheeks as the hopelessness of his situation cemented within him. Would he be trapped here forever? Ice-cold terror flowed through his veins as he imagined the possibility of this world being another death game,  another  SAO. This time... truly alone, forcibly separated from the people he loved...

_ Sugu. Sinon. Lizbeth. Silica. Agil. Klein. Yui. _

_ Asuna. _

** *THWACK* **

Kirito glared straight forward, unable to turn his head or move his eyes even an inch as the edges of his vision started to darken. A terrified cry leaked from him as he realized that like this,  he couldn’t breathe.  The techniques he had to calm himself down were absent from his mind as he hopelessly attempted to call out for help a final time, his head growing light as the world around him faded into darkness.

* * *

Sweat manifested on Eugeos forehead as the scorching rays of the Goddess Solus beamed down upon him. It was simply unbelievable to him that it could be this hot, and it wasn’t even summer yet! Wiping away the sweat as he hoisted the Dragon Bone axe above his shoulder, he allowed the pull of gravity to aid him in his next swing into the bane of his existence: The Gigas Cedar.

** *THWACK* **

Despite the blazing heat, today was a beautiful day. On days just like this one, the distant memories of his childhood would come rushing back to him. His childhood friend, Alice, would always bring him the most beautifully put together lunches each day without fail. Stacia, on days like  _this,_ where the sun was shining and the weather seemed to be perfect, he missed Alice the most. It was almost as if the good weather was mocking him, since he knew that without Alice by his side, he would never have another perfect day again.

** *THWACK* **

The events of those days would likely be engraved into his memory for the rest of his life. Them, traveling to the End mountains in search of ice to make Alice’s lunches last longer in the summers unforgiving heat, getting lost in the icy caves for hours...

Alice tripping, her fingers grazing the barrier, touching the ground of the Dark Territory. 

_ Breaking a clause of the Taboo Index._

The next day, an Integrity Knight of the Axiom Church came to take her away. He remembered how hopeless he felt as he watched Alice get chained up to the Integrity Knights dragon. In the end, all he could do was _just_ stand there, helplessly frozen and desperately trying to move his legs so he could help Alice.

Anger and guilt would stir deep within him whenever he thought about it.  _ Why didn’t he do something_ _?!_ His axe came down again, hacking even harder as he took out his aggression in that one swing.

** *THWACK* **

Eugeo loosened his grip on the axe, letting it fall with a small thud. With that last swing, he had reached his swing quota for the day, finally done. There was no point in feeling the anger,  the pain, now. That was six years ago, after all.

His muscles ached as he sank to the soft patch of grass beneath him,a satisfying feeling of moisture cooling him in the raging heat. Considering that he had nothing else to do for the day, staying here didn’t seem like a bad idea. His eyes fluttered shut as he relaxed, the spring breeze sweeping through his bangs. Ah yes, an almost perfect day...

Until he heard crying.

Eugeos eyes snapped open at the noise, but he remained completely still. Whoever was crying had to be close for it to be as loud as it was. It was surprising that anybody besides him was this far out from the village. It was an even bigger surprise that someone besides him would willingly come so close to the Gigas Cedar.

Normally, he was left alone for eight hours a day to complete his Sacred task. Not even the hunters would come out this far, likely because any creature that would make the poor decision to make a nest in the Gigas Cedar would die and spoil before anyone could hunt it. The Gigas Cedar was ravenous, sucking the life from any living creature that came into contact with it. 

Quietly getting up, Eugeo began rounding the trunk of the Gigas Cedar, trying to find the source of the crying without making it aware of his presence. The persons voice crackled in a way that made him think that the person was crying out for help, likely not knowing that anyone was near to hear his calls...

It made his heart break.

The anxiety that was already stirring within Eugeos chest increased ten-fold when the crying suddenly stopped. His pace quickened, now worried that whoever it was somehow managed to hurt themselves, it didn’t matter to him anymore if the person heard him or not.  


His eyes widened at the sight of a boy with raven-colored hair, his body slumped against the trunk of the Gigas Cedar. Eugeo moved quickly, wrapping his arms around the boy and pulling him away from the tree. Cradling the back of his head, Eugeo set him down as delicately as possible, using the small satchel he usually had attached to his belt as a makeshift pillow.

Bringing his nervously clenched fist to his mouth, he scanned the boy for any trace of an injury. A relieved sigh left his lips, his fist relaxing and falling into his lap. From what he could tell, the boy didn’t look to be injured. It wouldn’t hurt to be too careful though, so he splayed his fingers out above the boys chest, chanting a healing Sacred Art. 

Eugeos mind raced with a variety of scenarios for how this could have happened. Didn’t this guy know the dangers of leaning against the Gigas Cedar? There was no conceivable way for someone to not know about this tree, since it was the reason that Rulids land was barren, unable to grow two-thirds of the crops it needed just to get by. That, and the trees towering height meant that it could be probably still be seen from fifty miles away. He  _had_ to have known!  


Unless... the boy knew exactly what he was doing.

Eugeo sucked in a short, panicked breath. That... that couldn’t be. Suicide was impossible with the rules of the Taboo Index in place! He knew that his logic was correct, but he just couldn’t bring himself to believe it. The Taboo Index was solid in its rules, but  it did  have loopholes that people could exploit. He was certain that if someone really felt strongly enough to try and take their own life... they would get creative.

For example: sitting by a tree that drains away your life. 

Plucking a stray leaf from the boys hair, Eugeo fully took in his appearance. His hair was jet-black, styled similarly to his own. A navy blue tunic loosely draped around his body, looking to be a size or two off, matched with a pair of dark gray pants covered in dust and an equally dirty pair of brown work boots. The condition of his clothes was troubling, but not as troubling as the expression on his face. His face was scrunched up, stressed, almost as if he was simply asleep and having a nightmare.

Wait, he was just  _asleep_ ,  right?

Eugeo rapidly sat up, ghosting the palm of his hand over the boys mouth and nose before a relieved sigh passed through him. The boy was breathing, and he _wasn’t_ sitting next to a corpse. He pulled back, accidentally brushing his hand across the boys cheek and completely being taken aback by the wetness of it. A rush of nostalgia washed over him as he glided the length of his thumb over the boys face, drying it. Where had he seen this person before? He didn’t know who he was, but...

_ It felt like he was seeing an old friend for the first time in years. _

Wait. Friend? How can he consider him as a friend if they’ve never even met? Calling this stranger a friend just felt… natural.

Fighting against his tiredness, Eugeo pried himself from the grass, wrapped the boys arms around his neck, and loaded him onto his back. Feeling the his weight, Eugeo choked out a gasp. The boy was light, _too_ light. There was  _ no way  _ he weighed as much as he should.

With the boy now secure on his back, Eugeo started the long walk back to Rulid village. His resolve to protect this stranger only strengthened with each passing moment. Under his breath, he promised to both this stranger and himself,

“I promise,  friend,  Whatever it takes... I’ll find a way to help you. You can count on me.”


	2. Answers and Misunderstandings

The four-o’clock bell chimed as Eugeo reached the outer gates of Rulid with the unconscious stranger on his back, his muscles screaming at him as he ran. 

He trudged through the village, feeling the searing heat of the eyes of the other villagers burning into the back of his skull. After a few seconds of this, he realized they weren’t staring at him... but at the person he was carrying. He really couldn’t blame them for being curious as Rulid doesn’t get many visitors. Rulid didn’t even have any inns for visitors to _visit_! 

Eugeo stopped dead in his tracks, his knees almost harshly buckling and nearly causing him to fall. He didn’t know where to take the boy. His house was already far too full with three siblings and both of his parents. They didn’t have a doctor in the town that he could take him to... Maybe the church? They usually had spare rooms for children without families. 

He hesitated, knowing that was probably the correct place to take someone who was unconscious but… he always felt mass amounts of guilt whenever he saw Alice’s family there. Her little sister, Selka, was a nun in training practicing the Sacred arts, just like Alice did before she had been taken away.

Selka was sweeping away some leaves littered across the front lawn of the church as Eugeo approached the ancient building. He always thought the church was the most beautiful building in Rulid, it’s brightly colored stain glass windows standing out against the dull gray stone. If he could come here without the overwhelming feelings of guilt, he would probably want to spend every day there. 

He furrowed his brow, he knew he had to do this, no matter what feelings he had at the moment. He called out to her.

“Selka! I need help. I found this person in the forest unconscious.”

Selka looked over her shoulder at him, the broom in her hand going still as she locked her eyes onto the unconscious stranger. 

“A stranger... In the forest? Do you think he’s a lost child of Vecta?” she asked, worry prominently shown in her features.

Eugeo honestly didn’t know. There was no way to figure that out unless he had an actual conversation with the boy. The absolute terror in his cries before he collapsed showed that there was _something_ he remembered.

“I can’t be sure, but I have a feeling he could be. Do you think he could stay in the church until we figure that out? Also, I checked to see if he was injured, but I wasn’t too thorough. Do you think you could take a look at him to see if he’s okay?” Eugeo pleaded, shifting his weight for seemingly the hundredth time since he picked up the boy. It’s not that he was heavy(which was greatly worrying), but he had been carrying him for almost three quarters of an hour.

“One moment!” Selka called, stepping into the church. “I’ll ask Sister Azalia if it’s alright! Feel free in come in and put him down on one of the pews.”

Eugeo wasted no time in rushing through the door and gently laying the boy down on the pew. Struggling to catch his breath, Eugeo dropped down next to the his head, a satisfied groan leaving him as the strain on his muscles eased. The tree wasn’t too far, so it wouldn’t have been so much to him if he hadn’t had to swing his axe into the toughest tree on Terraria two thousand times beforehand that day. He glanced down that the boys face, finally taking a good look at it. His heart bounced in his chest.

The boy was… beautiful. 

His black hair was straight and shiny, and his skin was pale with a rosy shade of pink standing out on his cheeks and lips. Eugeo stared in awe as he watched the boys chest rise and fall with each breath, as if every breath were its own miracle. He wondered what color his eyes were. He bet they’d be a dark color that still sparkles—

Eugeo felt burning heat rise in his cheeks. Oh Stacia what was he _doing?_

After a couple of long minutes, Selka was walking back towards them.

“Sister Azalia said that he is free to stay here at the church. Have you checked his Stacia window yet?” Selka asked, leaning over Eugeos shoulder to look at the mysterious stranger that he had now pulled into his lap.

Eugeo had a pang of guilt hit him square in the gut. He was so frantic to get him as far from the tree as possible that the idea of checking his Stacia window completely slipped his mind. 

“Not yet, I was in such a rush to get here that I forgot. I found him leaning against the Gigas Cedar and I’m worried that being in contact with the tree might’ve caused him to faint” Eugeo explained, his eyes hard and unmoving from the boys face.

Telling Selka his theory was probably a bad idea, considering that there was still the possibility that he was wrong. Stacia, he _hoped_ he was wrong.

Selka nodded, opening the boys Stacia window and humming softly as she read over the info. Eugeo listened, holding his breath as he waited for her to say something. 

“He looks to be okay, just unconscious. Do you mind helping me get him up to the room? You look exhausted too, Eugeo, you’re also free to spend the night if you don’t think you can make it back home.” Selka offered, closing the Stacia window with a swipe of her hand.

Eugeo exhaled, relieved that he was okay. “Thank you Selka, I’ll help carry him, just lead the way!” he said, his body cursing him.

Ignoring the aching in his arms, Eugeo scooped the boy up into a bridal-style hold, following as Selka continued towards the stairs. An intense heat rose in his cheeks as he took a moment to look down. When carried like this, this boy looked so precious... almost like a little kid.

Wait, little kid? The boy as a little kid... _Ugh._ He had to figure out this out eventually. He felt like he almost had it.

Eugeo followed Selka up the stairs and to the left, being led to the room at the end of the hall. After carefully laying the boy down on the bed, he looked around the room, which only had an oak twin sized bed and a desk. Other than the old oil lamp on the desk, the rooms only light source was from the sunset outside, it’s soft rays streaming in and tinting the walls with a gentle glow.

“Just so you know, this is the only room we have available at the moment, you are free to stay here, but you’ll need to sleep in here as well.” Selka told him, moving to the doorway, “Come find me if you need anything! If he doesn’t wake by tomorrow we can call a doctor to come take a look at him.”

“Okay, thanks Selka! I’ll get some rest now,” Eugeo said, and with that, Selka left, closing the door behind her.

A rush of relief flowed through him, glad he hadn’t had to think of a good excuse to stay in the same room. If this boy was truly attempting suicide, it was a possibility that when he woke up he would try again. If Eugeo stayed in the room and watched over him... he wouldn’t be able to run away.

Eugeo took the blanket that was neatly folded on the end of the bed and threw it over the boy, covering him. He sat down at the desk, a rush of questions flowing through his mind to ask the boy for whenever he regained consciousness. 

Who are you? Where are you from? How did you end up so far in the forest? Why were you crying?

_Why are you so familiar?_

Eugeo groaned, burying his face into his arms on the desk. That would be a weird question to ask a complete stranger, but then again, it was also weird that a stranger that he had never met before just appeared in the forest to begin with.

Part of him wondered what village he was from. Rulid was small, populated with around three-hundred people. Considering both him _and_ Selka didn’t recognize him, it was safe to say that he likely came from another village, possibly Zakkaria or Flaggidd. 

Looking over his shoulder, he noticed the boy had begun to snuggle into the sheets. He could only imagine how warm and soft it’d feel if he— Eugeo blinked, his spine shooting straight up at the rising heat in his face. There was something wrong with him today... it was too tiring to think about now. He lowered his head onto the desk once more, immediately drifting into sleep after the exhausting day he’d had. 

* * *

Kirito awoke for the second time in a row not knowing where he was, this time wrapped in a soft blanket. Underneath the blanket, he experimentally wiggled his fingers,  he could move again.  Was it just a nightmare? It was hard to believe that he’d pass out like that in the forest. His panic attacks never usually got _that_ bad, even if he would have them sometimes, he never passed out from one. Swiftly sitting up, he scanned the room, freezing up at the sight of a stranger asleep at a desk a couple of feet away. 

Taking in a sharp breath, he instinctively reached over his shoulder to grasp at his sword, which wasn’t there. It took him a moment to process that...  _he did it again._ Sometimes, he would forget that he wasn’t trapped in SAO anymore. Then after a moment, he’d remember, and feel all the guilt all over again. It wasn’t healthy, he knew that. It was a seemingly never-ending cycle of self destruction that he wasn’t sure how to stop.

The cushy blanket wrapped around him crumpled in his fist as he considered what he should do next. His best bet was to just leave the room quietly, and pretend this never happened. That’s what he _usually_ did in situations he wasn’t too comfortable in. His gaze lingered back over to the person softly snoring into the desk. Nobody would be able to stop him from just leaving, but...

_ He didn’t want to do that though. _

Waking up the person was a  risky move, but maybe they’d understand what was going on. By talking to them, he’d probably be able to deduce if this world was virtual or not at least.

Kirito carefully removed himself from the warm bundle of the blanket and crept to the persons side to inspect them. His eyes widened as he caught view of what the boy looked like. The boy had flax-brown colored hair that made waves on his smooth, cream colored skin. He wore a baby blue tunic, dark gray pants, and a pair of light brown boots. 

The boy was pretty good looking, he could definitely see him as some sort of model for—WAIT GETTING OFF TRACK. Groaning internally, Kirito did his best to stow those weird thoughts away to a far corner of his mind. It wasn’t the time  or  place for that.

This boy was adorable though. Kirito had never felt that about another guy before. He tried to shake the heat from his cheeks, but it was no use. 

Kirito gulped. Okay. He was gonna do it.   
  


Bringing his hand to the boys shoulder, he shook him awake gently.

“Hey, wake up.”

The boy slowly stirred, stretching his arms above his head as he let out a wide yawn, teary droplets forming in the corners of his eyes as he did so. 

_ Cute. _

Once his eyes fluttered open, Kirito couldn’t help but stare. His eyes were a pale aquamarine, alight with sleepy confusion. They were sparkling in the light of the oil lamp that was aflame on the corner of the desk. Kirito was mesmerized…

“You’re awake!” The boy gasped, a smile spreading across his face.

Kiritos heart jumped, his voice was warm and silky smooth.

“My name is Eugeo, do you have a name?” Eugeo asked heartily, leaning forward in his chair a little.

Kirito was suddenly hit with the feeling of familiarity, he silently mouthed the name,  Eugeo.  It was a name that he had never heard before, yet the way his lips moved when testing that name out felt as though he’s said it before. Other than that, Eugeo didn’t appear to be an NPC, as NPCs certainly don’t sleep. With how realistic everything seemed, this world may be the real one after all.

“My name is... Kirito.” He reluctantly confessed, not meeting Eugeos eyes. For some reason, he feared that if he looked at Eugeo  and  heard his voice at the same time, he’d turn even redder than he already was.  What the _hell_ was wrong with him today?!

Eugeo held a hand out for him to shake, a polite smile on his face, “it’s nice to make your acquaintance, Sir Kirito.”   


“You can just call me Kirito.” He reluctantly shook Eugeos hand. 

Eugeos face of kind relief faded into one of worry as he asked, “Kirito, I found you in the forest. Do you remember how you got there?”

Kiritos arms tensed at his sides, _so it_ _ wasn’t  _ _a dream!_ Had Eugeo been the one to carry him here? At his current weight, it wouldn’t have been much of a challenge. He knew that he wasn’t talking good enough care of himself, but ever since he was released from the hospital after the SAO incident... he just never got his appetite back. 

Kirito answered honestly, “I mean—it’s like... I don’t know how I got there. I don’t remember.”

“How about where you live? Do you know what town you’re from?” Eugeo questioned further.

The words,  Kawagoe City,  lingered on his tongue before he decided against saying it, shaking his head, “Uh, no. Everything’s a blank.”

Kirito wasn’t completely convinced that this was the real world yet. If this  was  the underworld, revealing anything about the outside world would probably be prohibited, so he held back.

“I’ve heard the stories, but I never thought I’d meet a real-life lost child of Vecta... I can’t believe it!” Eugeo exclaimed.

Kirito cocked his head to the side, “A lost child of what?”

“A lost child of Vecta,” Eugeo repeated himself, “When someone disappears from a village, then suddenly turns up in a forest or field,that’s what these people are called. Sometimes, the dark god Vecta likes to prank humans by snatching them and stealing their memories, taking them far away from their home.” Eugeo solemnly explained, sending Kirito a pitying look.

“Oh, I guess that’s what must of happened to me.”

From that, it was impossible to determine if it was the real world or not since Vecta could possibly be a religious figure in the real world that he was simply unaware of. Before he could inquire further, Eugeo spoke again.

“Also, I wanted to ask you about something else. I didn’t only find you unconscious. Right before I found you, I heard... crying. I then found you slumped against the trunk of the Gigas Cedar. Could you explain what happened after you woke up?” Eugeo swallowed nervously, looking at Kirito expectantly.

Kirito had to stop himself from cringing. Well that confirms it, there is  _no way_ Eugeo could be an NPC because no NPC would ever be programmed to ask such uncomfortable questions. What was he even supposed to say to a question like  _ that? _

“I-I... Well...” Kirito started, unsure of what he could say that wouldn’t make Higa, RATHs Operator, yell at him later. To be completely honest, not even _he_ understood what had happened to him back there. Kirito shrunk in on himself as he attempted to come up with a suitable answer. A hand being placed on his shoulder is what brought him back to reality.

“Hey... it’s okay. Don’t force yourself to remember if you can’t.” Eugeo gave a small pat, “I’m just glad that you seem to be doing okay. Selka checked your Stacia Window when we got here, whatever life you lost in the forest should be completely restored by now.”

Kirito was shocked into a back step, stunned at the words that came so casually out of Eugeos mouth.  Stacia Window? Life? _What?_ Those words caught his attention the most as they reminded him of the video game lingo that he knew all too well by now. Eugeo caught on to Kiritos expression that he had no idea what he was talking about.

“Wait a second... do you not remember the Stacia Window?” Eugeo asked, a clueless moment of silence hanging between them before he drew an S-shape out in the air. Kirito had to stop his audible shock as a translucent purple screen popped up in front of him.

Kirito stared, stunned at the thin purple screen that floated at Eugeos fingertips. It was as if the oxygen was sucked from his lungs and the world had stopped spinning altogether, leaving him disoriented, dizzy as he abruptly sat down on the bed behind him. After seeing that, there was no denying it—He was not in the real world.

Eugeo had quickly risen from his chair and was at Kiritos side, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?” He asked with genuine concern. Kirito was unresponsive, placing his hazy head in his hands as he collected his thoughts:

Okay, so this world was virtual. He didn’t think Eugeo was an NPC, he could possibly be another test player who had their memories erased. It was probably a bad idea to try an open a menu and risk looking like a crazy person in front of Eugeo. Maybe if he tried a direct approach, Eugeo would understand that he needed to log out. Well, here goes nothing.

“I... yes. I’m not feeling too great. Eugeo, I want to leave.”

A moment of silence passed before Kirito felt the mattress next to him sink.

“Hmm, yes I’m sure you do.” Eugeo said.

In the gaps between his fingers, he could see that Eugeo had sat down next to him, a hand resting on his chin as he thought hard,

“I think I know how to help you. The forest is huge and easy to get lost in though, I can show you a path that leads north and if you stick to it you won’t get lost. But before I do I—“

“N-no sorry, that’s not what I meant... I want to log out now.” Kirito rephrased himself clearly.

Eugeo tilted his head to the side, “Hm? Log out? I’m not sure what you’re trying to say...”

Kiritos slid his hands to the sides of his head, pulling a little at his hair in his anxiety,  _Of course_ he wouldn’t know! There’s no way he’d know about the real world if his memories were erased. This was a stupid idea.

“Kirito, I just—” Eugeo stopped himself, trying to word his question as delicately as possible, “I know this is a rather personal question, but do you want to... leave this world? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

Kiritos eyes lit up,  “Yes! Thank god, you actually understood!”

Eugeos fists clenched on his knees, a tremble running through them. “I-I knew it...”

Kirito turned head to the side, finally looking back at Eugeo...

Who was crying.

Kiritos chest tightened, his eyebrows raising in honest confusion, “W-wait a second... why are you—“

“I k-knew...” Eugeos voice cracked, “Be-because when you were up against the Gigas Cedar... you... it...” He completely broke down crying, suddenly latching onto Kirito, his forehead in the center of Kiritos chest, and his fingers clinging to the cloth on Kiritos back.“I’ll try to understand you...I-I’ll try! Just don’t...”

Kirito was frozen in that moment, Eugeo was holding him closer than anyone ever had before. The distress in his sobs sounded so genuine... Eugeo was definitely real, even if his soul was artificial. Kirito folded his arms around Eugeo in an embrace, rubbing circles into his back to soothe him. A powerful ringing of guilt weighed itself on Kiritos shoulders as he tried to think back to  what exactly he said  that made Eugeo cry.Eugeo sobbed harder, his grip tightening, 

“P-please don’t try... to kill yourself...”

Kiritos heart nearly stopped beating as his eyes widened in understanding, the moment clicking in his mind, 

_ Do you want to leave this world? _

Kirito gulped. He messed up  _bad_ _._ Eugeo thought that he... That was definitely taken the wrong way. Sure he thought he deserved to die, and he starved himself, and self harmed, and—

Kirito just realized that he may in fact have an actual problem. He really didn’t mean that in  _that_ way though. Eugeo was  already  overwhelmed... telling him that his entire world is a simulation might not be the best idea,  especially  with what Kikuoka and Higa told him what might happen if he does. He didn’t see a way out of this... other than playing along.

“Okay, Eugeo” Kirito agreed, unable to keep his voice from wavering, “We can stay alive here, together.” 

Kirito knew that by now, one of them should’ve pulled back, but there was something about Eugeos compassion for a stranger that made him never want to let him go. Rubbing his tears away with his arm, Eugeo was the one to pull back, lips edged upwards into a kind smile.

“Thank you.”


	3. The Taboo Index

Eugeo awoke swaddled in warmth, the morning light of Solus streaming in through the window onto the planks on the floor, bringing out the rich mahogany coloring of the wood. All he could think was just how tranquil he felt, it was likely sometime around seven in the morning as he couldn’t hear the usual bustling of people outside. Taking a deep breath, he momentarily panicked at the unfamiliar scent of crisp air on a cool summer night and the alarming sensation of weight on his chest. Heat fired across his cheeks as it registered in his mind that _Kirito was on top of him._

Eugeos nose was buried within the dark locks of Kiritos hair and Kiritos face was concealed in the crook of his neck, little snores leaking from the sleeping boys slightly agape mouth. The tension in Eugeos body eased as comforting warmth overtook him, his eyes _nearly_ slipping back shut but shooting open wide as he recalled the events of the previous night. Kirito basically admitted to having the want to leave this world and escape into heaven... and all he did in response was cry. The discovery that _he was right_ had been just too overwhelming for—

Eugeos shoulders stiffened at the realization that Kiritos arms were around him, tightly binding him in a hug. It… how come it felt so _nice_? It’s been years since he had been _this close_ with another person... at least not since—

“Mmm… Eugeo..” Kirito moaned groggily, his cheek sliding back against skin as he moved back in order to look at Eugeo.

Only then did Eugeo become conscious of the position they were in. 

His lips were only inches away from Kiritos.

They were _inches_ away from breaking a clause of the Taboo Index...and Kirito was wide awake, his eyes locked on Eugeos. Eugeos heart was as light as a feather as he took into account that Kiritos eyes were a dark, ashy color, contrasted only by the bright specks of light that shone in them. They looked like...  
  


_Stars in the night sky._

Eugeo panicked, as it hit him that he’d just spent the entire last minute _staring._ Oh... _Oh Goddess Stacia!_

Kirito acted accordingly, moving back against the wall to give Eugeo space as Eugeo simultaneously launched himself backwards, a sharp yelp escaping him as he hit the floor. Bouncing right back and pretending that he _didn’t_ make a total fool of himself, Eugeo sat up, “Good morning, Kirito! How’d you sleep?”

“Good morning, I slept okay... Are you alright? That fall looked like it hurt” Kirito said, a shocked smile plastered on his face.

“I-I’m fine!” Eugeo squeaked out, internally smacking himself for acting so nervous. “Do you want to go get some breakfast? You must be starving after what happened yesterday.”

Instantly, he wished he could pull back that last part. Stacia, _why did he even mention yesterday?_

Kirito hesitated, the gears clearly turning in his tired mind before he answered, “Ah, sure. Also I’ve been wondering, where are we right now? Is this an inn? I don’t have any money... but I can pay you back eventually.”

Eugeos eyebrows raised in his surprise, “Oh! This isn’t an inn, it’s a church. Rulid isn’t a big enough village to have its own inn and we don’t see very many travelers. You don’t have to pay anything to stay here, I’ve already set things up so you can stay here as long as you need to.”

Averting his gaze, Kirito mumbled bashfully, “Um... Thank you. I really don’t deserve all this kindness, you know.”

Eugeo furrowed his brow, not certain what he could say that wouldn’t be overstepping, “Kirito... you know that you don’t need to do anything to deserve kindness, right?”

Kirito still wouldn’t make eye contact, he _definitely_ overstepped. Eugeo backtracked, “Ah, never mind. I’m sure you already knew that.” He brushed the dust from his pants as he stood up, “Come on, if we’re lucky, the bakery may have started selling fresh bread already!”

As Kirito stood up and stretched his arms out behind himself, Eugeo took notice that they were roughly the same height, with Eugeo being a smidge taller. Redness invaded his cheeks as he forced himself to look away out of politeness, he didn’t understand why he kept noticing all these small, insignificant things about Kirito. Keeping his gaze to the side, he exited the bedroom with Kirito close behind. 

* * *

The two walked in an uncomfortable silence that Kirito thought was almost suffocating. At least it wasn’t as awkward as when he introduced himself to Selka and Sister Azalia a couple of minutes before, they had seemed so concerned for him that he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to act in front of them. Strangers in this world appear to be much more compassionate than strangers in the real world would ever be. It wasn’t just them, he didn’t know how he was supposed to act in front of Eugeo either. After what happened this morning, he _especially_ didn’t know what to say.

He kind of liked it.

Eugeo was the one to first break the silence, a smile on his face, “I can smell the bread from here! This is a real treat for me, most days I don’t have the time to wait for fresh bread due to my calling.”

“A calling? What do you do?” Kirito asked, tilting his head. Considering this society was separate from the real worlds, he should’ve expected them to have some alternate words for things. A calling was probably a job.

“if you want I can show you after we get some bread,” Eugeo said, Kirito nodded at him in agreement as they approached the overly-crowded bakery.

Eating in a simulated world... would that be similar to what it was like to eat in SAO? He didn’t feel all that hungry. Then again he never did. 

Eugeo turned around to face Kirito.

“Do you mind grabbing us a bench to eat on?” Eugeo requested, digging in one of his pockets for what Kirito assumed to be cash, “Also don’t worry about paying, I’ll cover your meal.”

“Oh, you really don’t need to—“

“Kirito, I know you haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. You need to eat something. I’m not going to let you collapse on me again“ Eugeo lectured.

“Okaaay” Kirito grumbled, knowing that Eugeo was right, and that there was no way around this. With the tone Eugeo just had, there was no way he could have been convinced to just let him be.

After finding a wooden bench to sit on, he took a seat and admired the way the village looked. The style was very reminiscent of the medieval themes that were very frequent throughout ALO. Most of the paths were paved cobblestone or dirt, while a majority of the buildings he had seen on the way here were built from either stone bricks and wooden logs. 

Kirito watched as a small, pale pink butterfly fluttered gracefully in the air around his head before nimbly landing on on his wrist. He raised his hand closer to his face carefully to inspect it. It was so... detailed. This entire world was incredible.   
  
It was unbelievable to him that something _like this_ could be created by humans... the company that developed this world, RATH, had really outdid themselves. It was almost impossible to tell the difference between this world and the real one.

Now that he thought about it... how could he be here right now? This was insane. After he had been attacked... he remembered _nothing._ Had more happened after the attack? He very well could’ve went back to RATH, and then maybe Kikuoka put him in the STL for... _Ugh._ He had no clue why Kikuoka would put him in here.

Kikuoka was the one who had hired him to test the STL... otherwise known as the Soul Translator. For reasons unknown to him, RATH had delved into a top-secret government project: Project Alicization. The goal was simple, create highly adaptive artificial intelligence that instead of being programmed what to think, could _actually_ think for themselves.

Now, the main reason that he was hired: Even though this society had existed for around three-hundred years at this point... not a single war has broken out, not a _single_ person has ever been killed here since the Artifical Souls or Artificial Fluctlights were _so obedient_ that they weren’t capable of breaking any rules. Apparently, according to some of the experiments RATH did, they wouldn’t even break the law to _survive_ when it came down to life-or-death circumstances!

  
He was here to be a wrench in the gears, a being that had their memories wiped, believing that it had grown up in this world from birth. They had put him here to see if _he_ could break the rules of this world, to see if it was the world itself that made it impossible to break its laws, or if the Artificial Fluctlights just weren’t advanced enough to execute free-will. The answer to the question was out of his reach, though, since his memories were always withheld once he woke up, he couldn’t even tell his friends or family about it.

Did his family even know he was in here? His friends? Asuna?

His breath stuttered. Asuna. How could he forget about Asuna? Did she get away... or...

No, she _had_ to have gotten away! She was the lightning flash... Second in command of Knights of the Blood Oath! She had to be okay...

“Are you okay?” Eugeo asked. Kirito jumped, accidentally scaring the butterfly away. He watched as the small creature flew back up into the air. He didn’t expect Eugeo just to appear right in front of him like that. Looks like his life-long habit of zoning out translated to this world, too. 

“Oh... I’m fine, sorry. I was just thinking” Kirito said. Eugeo handed him a thick slice of bread and sat down next to him.

“About?” Eugeo pushed, taking a bite into a corner of his bread.

Kirito thought for a moment. He wasn’t too sure if he should tell Eugeo about what he had experienced before he woke up in the woods. He looked over at Eugeo, who was smiling... but his eyes said something else. Had he always been this selfish? How come he didn’t it sooner? Eugeo found him, brought him somewhere safe to sleep, and now has bought him a meal. All this time Eugeo has been worried about him... He owed Eugeo an explanation for that.

“It’s about why I was crying in the forest” Kirito swallowed.

Eugeos bread stopped halfway to his mouth. He was silent, waiting for what Kirito had to say next.

“When I woke up in the forest, all I could remember was that my friend and I were attacked. All I could think of is if she was alive… But now I don’t know where she is” Kirito's voice cracked at the end.

 _Damn it._ He shouldn’t get all choked up in front of Eugeo. Eugeo didn’t deserve the burden of dealing with his emotional crap. 

Eugeo lowered his bread into his lap and sent Kirito a pitying smile, “I know how you feel. I have a friend that I lost too.”

Kirito looked at him, his heart twinging painfully at the faraway look in Eugeos eyes. Kirito lifted his hand in an attempt to comfort Eugeo, but wound up placing it on the bench next to his legs instead. He asked, “What happened to them?” 

“She was my childhood best friend, we would play together all the time... But one day, the two of us went to explore the caves up north in search of ice. We got lost, and she accidentally crossed the boundary into the Dark Territory, a place no human is allowed to enter. The Taboo Index forbids it.” Eugeo said, a sharp edge to his tone.

Kirito squinted. The _Taboo Index?_ Could that possibly be... this worlds set of laws? The laws that the Fluctlights refuse to break? So someone here _had_ broken a law before... by accident. Did that even count if the Artificial Fluctlight didn’t _make the choice_ to break the law? 

“The next day, an Integrity Knight came to our village, and took her away to be executed. But... I still believe she’s alive somewhere in Centoria. I know it, Alice is alive.”

The wind was suddenly trapped in his lungs, his heart racing in a way he couldn’t understand. First it was the mentioning of Eugeos name that pulled at the tassels of his heart, and now Alice’s too. Deep in thought, he tried to figure out _why_ that name felt so important... why _Eugeos_ name was so important. Focusing in, he tried to remember... _Alice..._

His eyes flew open at the memory of a golden braid soaring in front of him.

_What on earth was that?_

Eugeo spoke suddenly, catching Kirito off guard. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable... I really shouldn’t—“

Kirito interjected, “No— it’s okay! I don’t mind at all if you want to talk about things like this. I’m just surprised that you’re so open about it.”

”Normally I wouldn’t be. To be honest, it feels like we’re old friends.” Eugeo admitted, a small smile curling on his face, “it’s... really nice.”

Kirito caught himself smiling too, “I feel that way too. So, if you know where she might be, why don’t you try to find her?” He questioned, eyeing his piece of bread. 

“Well...” Eugeo started, his gaze tilting away with his head, “That would take weeks of traveling, and I can’t just abandon my calling, the Taboo Index forbids _that_ too.”

“Oh, right” Kirito agreed. This _“Taboo Index”_ really sounded like a pain in the ass to deal with. What _would_ happen if one of these Artificial Fluctlights broke the Taboo Index? This was bothering him. He couldn’t imagine that someone as real as Eugeo wouldn’t be able to break rules. 

“You said that you and your friend were attacked, do you remember who it was or why they did it?” Eugeo questioned, leaning forward so that his elbows rested on his knees.

“Nope” Kirito lied, gripping his piece of bread a little too tight. He _hated_ lying, but if he told the truth then he’d have to tell Eugeo the whole story, which likely wouldn’t make any sense to him. “all I know is that we were attacked, I must’ve been knocked out... and I woke up in the forest.”

For now he would drop it, but overall, Kirito was satisfied. Eugeo looked a bit less worried about him after that conversation. Looking at the slice of bread in his hands, he hesitantly bit into it. A surprised noise left his throat, it tasted like cinnamon! The waves of hunger didn’t hit him until he took that first bite, he quickly scarfed down half of the piece before he caught himself.

The heat on Kiritos cheeks rose all the way up to the tips of his ears as he cranked his neck around, hoping Eugeo didn’t just see him do that. Their eyes met, and he _knew_ that Eugeo saw.

“Do you like the bread?” Eugeo asked with an amused chuckle, his tone suggesting that he was already fully aware of the answer. “We got lucky today! They had a cinnamon one left and that’s the one I got you. At this time, they usually only have the day-old bread, so I rushed to snatch that one before it was gone.”

Kirito eyed the piece Eugeo had been nibbling on, “What flavor did you get for yourself?”

“This one is plain... don’t worry, _this one_ isn’t day-old at least.” Eugeo said, a grateful smile gracing his cheeks.

Kirito squinted, realizing that Eugeo had _barely_ even touched his piece, “Do... you like the bread?”

Eugeo shook his head, “I would never complain, but I won’t lie either. It isn’t very good, but by now I’m used to it. It’s what I can afford.”

“What’s your favorite flavor that they have here then? For some reason, I get the feeling that you like sweet things.” Kirito predicted, unknowing if he based that off of the sweet nature of Eugeos looks or personality... possibly both.

“Well, the feeling you have is right. This place used to have honey bread, but they always make it so dry. I’d say my favorite flavor of bread would be cinnamon.” Eugeo responded nonchalantly.

Kirito paused halfway into the action of leaning in to bite into his bread, “Wait, didn’t you give me the wrong—“

It instantly dawned on him that Eugeo gave him the better piece _on purpose._ It was a relatively small gesture in comparison for all the other things Eugeos done for him, but even so, it showed him just how kind Eugeo was. Just the idea that Eugeo thought of what _he’d_ enjoy over his own self interest made him smile ear-to-ear. Eugeo truly was a selfless person. 

Kirito was glad that the piece Eugeo had given him was big, or else he wouldn’t be able to do what he wanted to do next. He broke the piece he had into even halves and held out one for Eugeo to take.

Eugeos gaze switched from Kirito, to the piece in front of him, and then back to Kirito. It clicked in his mind after a few seconds what Kirito was doing.   
  


“Oh!”

  
Eugeo copied Kiritos action by pulling his own piece into halves, taking the cinnamon piece and giving him the plain piece in return. Kirito caught the heat in his cheeks growing even hotter as he watched Eugeo happily munch on the cinnamon piece. Why did Eugeo have to be so... well… _cute_? Not even the girls who fawned over him back in the real world made him this flustered and Eugeo _wasn’t even trying!_ He forced himself to look away.

* * *

Eugeo swallowed down the final remains of his meal, stifling his laugh when he noticed how red Kiritos face had gotten. Kirito was absolutely adorable! 

He smiled contently as Kirito finished off his slice of bread, glad that Kirito didn’t put up much of a fight about eating. Kirito was way too thin; There was no way he was eating as much as he should be.

Eugeo was determined to change that.

At the chime of the nine-o’clock bell, Eugeos eyes widened. Had it already been two hours? Other than that— _he was late!_ No wonder the bakery had fresh bread... normally he would’ve just picked up his lunch and headed straight to work.

Eugeo stood, “So, are you ready to see what my calling is?”

“Sure. Also thanks for the bread. It was awesome!” Kirito said, following suit.

They walked in comfortable silence, the entire time, Eugeo wondered what Kirito would think of his calling. In _his_ opinion, his job wasn’t very exciting. The work was repetitive, and it left him constantly tired, but he loved that he had the chance to go outside every day! Even though he was alone all of the time... he couldn’t complain.

Far in the the distance, he could see their destination.

The Gigas Cedar.


	4. Falling in love again

Once they had arrived at the tree, Eugeo noticed the way Kirito stared up its trunk in wonder.

When he was young, he’d look up at the Gigas Cedar in that exact same way. It was always there, filling up the southern sky, standing magnificently tall. It was...

“ _Tall enough to reach the heavens_ ”  Eugeo muttered under his breath.

It had been so long since he looked at the Gigas Cedar with anything but distain, but for some reason... today just felt different. It was as if coming here wasn’t a chore, something  he wanted  to do. It had been years since he felt like this last.

“Did you say something?” Kirito asked beside him.

“Oh—nothing!” Eugeo snapped himself out of his thoughts, “This is actually where I found you yesterday, does it bring back any memories?”

Kirito paused, his line of sight falling from the highest tip of the tree that they could see to its roots. “Nope, I’ve got nothing.”

Eugeo bent down to pick up the Dragon Bone axe that had been left abandoned yesterday, “That’s alright, I’m sure something will come back to you eventually! You can just take a seat and I’ll get to my work.”

Kirito nodded and sat down on a stray patch of grass, boring his gaze into Eugeo, waiting to see what he would do.  


As Eugeo lifted the axe, a sudden wave of nervousness overcame him. Why now, of all times, was he feeling like this? Maybe it was the fact that he had never been watched performing his Sacred task before, or that nobody other than Alice had even  cared  about his calling. Or maybe... he feared the possibility of Kirito associating him with the Demon tree like nearly everyone else he knew did. No matter what it was, he  still  had a job to do. He let the axe swiftly come down, hitting the tree right at its core.

After a couple of minutes of Eugeo swinging the axe, Kirito piped up, “Hey, Eugeo—“

Eugeo cut him off, “I know, it’s boring. But I—“

“That’s not what I was going to say! I was going to ask if I could try that out too. You gave me half of your breakfast, so I should be picking up half the work.” Kirito reasoned, “Does the Taboo Index have a rule against  _ that? _ ”

Eugeo thought for a moment, “It doesn’t... but you really don’t need to pay me back, you know. You deserve to eat, just like anyone else.”

His axe stilled in the air once he caught the disappointed look in Kiritos eyes.

The Taboo Index  really didn’t  have any clauses pertaining to whether someone could help out with a calling or not, only that one must not abandon their Sacred task or take up too many tasks. Normally that would mean that nobody would be available to help him, since during daylight hours most would be performing their own callings... but since Kirito forgot his calling, or possibly was exempt from one, he was an exception.

He yielded, holding out the axe to Kirito, “Okay, you can try it out. Just be careful, it isn’t as easy as it looks.”

Eugeo took a step back, placing a hand on his hip and smiling innocently as he waited for the inevitable.

“I won’t know till I try!” Kirito grinned, taking the axe and getting into stance that Eugeo had never seen before. Kirito smoothly slid his right leg back, raising the axe in an angle behind him. Although it seemed a little weird to Eugeo, he could tell that the form was beautifully sculpted... all powerful.

With a flash of his teeth, Kirito smirked, “Here goes nothing!”

Kiritos axe came down with a battle cry, it’s edge chipping the bark hard, completely missing the gaping crevice in the wood. A surprised noise escaped his throat as the axe fell out of his hands, falling forward onto his knees and likely feeling the vibration of his hit in his wrists, 

“ _Ow!_ _The fuck?!_ ”

Eugeo took one look at Kiritos expression, and couldn’t help but burst out into laughter. Kiritos demeanor had done a  complete turnaround,  from slightly smug into pure unadulterated shock, his eyes almost bulging out of his head. By the time Eugeo had calmed himself down, his stomach had begun to hurt and tears had started leaking from his eyes.

“You don’t have to laugh  _that_ hard.” Kirito sulked, narrowing his eyes at Eugeo as he rubbed at his wrists.

“I’m sorry about that,” Eugeo tilted his head a little, his smile telling that he _really_ _ wasn’t sorry at all. _ “You put  way  too much tension into your shoulders and hips. You’ll take your back out like that! Relax, and let the momentum do the work for you.”

After a moment, Kirito picked himself back up, getting back into position to try it again. This time, with Eugeos advice in mind, the axe came down,  still  missing its target, but making a satisfying chopping sound and  actually  making a mark on the tree. Kirito was knocked back by the force of his hit, another noise of surprise coming from him.

“ _Woah! _ That was a nice hit!” Eugeo said, “Go on, give it another try before you forget.”

  
  


It was a couple of hours later when Eugeo swung his axe for the final time that day. Occasionally switching off with Kirito, they had spent the entire day chopping away at the Gigas Cedar.

Talking to Kirito and discovering what he was and wasn’t aware of was mind boggling. The Dark God Vecta had done a serious number on his memory. It was almost as if he was from another world entirely! He was a total blank slate... he couldn’t recall the Taboo Index, Integrity Knights, Sacred tasks... or _anything!_

Eugeo watched as Kirito took one final swing before holding the axe out for him to take, sighing tiredly, “I think my arms gonna fall off... are we almost done? I bet you would’ve had this thing cut down by now if I wasn’t here messing around.”

Taking the axe, Eugeo snorted, “I  _doubt_ that. Thanks for helping me out, Kirito. You’re a natural at this! We’re done for today.”

Eugeo thought that Kirito really needed to give himself more credit. Most of his swings were solid and in place. At the beginning Kirito had been a little shaky, but after eight hours of practice, he was beginning to think that Kirito was better at his calling than he was.

Kirito eyed the tree up and down, “How long do you think it’ll take to chop it down, anyway?”

As they began their walk back to the village, Eugeo brought a hand to his chin. Considering that he and the previous six woodcutters had only managed to make it one-fourth of the way into the tree, and half the life he was able to shave off would regenerate overnight...

“Give or take nine-hundred years.” Eugeo estimated.

Kirito chuckled, “Good one.”  


“I’m not joking.”

Suddenly, Kirito stopped, his eyes widening in surprise.

“W- _what?!_ Nine-hundred... you won’t even live that long!”

“Neither did the six previous woodcutters before me.” Eugeo said flatly, continuing back towards Rulid, “Well—actually five. My predecessor, Garitta, is actually still alive I think. I’m not the first to use this axe, and I certainly won’t be the last either.”

Kirito rushed from behind him, catching up, _“Wait a second!—_ I can’t... I can’t wrap my head around this. Can you explain what the deal is with the tree?”

“Okay.” Eugeo breathed, stopping in front of the shed and turning to face Kirito.

“It’s my job to work on that tree, it’s called the Gigas Cedar. As you know, I’m a seventh generation woodcutter... that’s our calling. Someone’s been chopping away at it every single day, for three-hundred years in fact! Though it’s called the Gigas Cedar in the Sacred tongue, the villagers nicknamed it the Demon tree. They call it that since it sucks up all of Terrarias blessings from Rulids soil. The villagers need new farmland, land that can actually  _grow_ something, but nobody can get good harvests while this tree stands.”

Kirito was taken aback, sad realization twinkling in his eyes, “You...  _ this  _ is what you do every single day? All by yourself?”

“Well...” Eugeo began, opening the door to the shed and placing his axe against the wall, “It wasn’t  _ supposed  _ to be just me, you know. Garitta once told me that he had managed to convince the elder of Rulid to assign  _ two  _ woodcutters, but I guess nothing ever came of it. Also, it’s not every single day. There’s the day of rest, one day a week where I’m permitted to take off.”

As Eugeo closed the sheds door and turned to walk away, Kirito called out to him, “Wait!—you forgot to lock it.”

“What for?”, Eugeo tilted his head to the side. 

“What do you mean  ‘ _What for_ ’? Someone could steal it.” Kirito said, his shoulders dropping a little.

“Now who’d do that?” Eugeo asked, knowing  _ exactly  _ who would steal from him given the chance, “It clearly states in the Taboo Index that theft is forbidden, remember?”

“O-oh yeah, thats right...” Kirito laughed nervously.

Eugeo continued where he left off, “Besides, it’s not like anyone would come out this far into the forest anyway, even if they  could  steal it. Nobody wants to be near the Gigas Cedar, given how dangerous it is.”

Kirito blinked, “Dangerous?”

Eugeo nodded, “Not only does the tree suck up Terrarias blessings, but it also absorbs the life from whatever touches it so it has the energy to grow even taller.”

“Like... through the bark?” Kirito raised an eyebrow.

“Of course not!”  Eugeo declared, “That isn’t how trees work. It’s the roots.  They are what absorb life. Didn’t you notice how they stick up out of the ground around the tree? You...”

He stopped, something instantaneously clicking in his mind. The way Kirito was reacting... maybe he really _didn’t_ know about the tree. Which meant...

“Kirito... yesterday, you—“

“Hey Eugeo, who’s your new friend?” 

Eugeo could feel his heart drop into his stomach as he recognized that voice. It was Zinc, the villages guard captain. Groaning internally, he forced a small smile onto his face. He was hoping to not run into Zinc when he was with Kirito because... Zinc was a bit of a jerk.

Well... that was the polite way of saying that Zinc had been bullying him for years on end. Plenty of people looked down on him due to his calling, but most of them would just shun him and ignore him entirely... Not Zinc though.

“...Hey Zinc. This is Kirito. Do you mind letting us through? He’s a lost Child of Vecta” Eugeo explained, resisting the urge to grab onto Kiritos arm and pull him away before Zinc had a chance to humiliate him. This morning he had humiliated himself  _enough._

Zincs gaze shifted over to Kirito, “That true? You can’t remember anything?”

“Um... no?” Kirito lilted.

“Did you forget your calling too?” Zinc smiled devilishly.

Eugeo instantly knew what was coming once he saw Zincs smile. That was the expression Zinc usually had when he would start making fun of him. _Oh Stacia here we go..._

“Yeah, I guess.” Kirito answered.

“It was probably a lousy calling anyway,” Zinc taunted, wearing that  stupid grin, he scoffed “Bet it was as lame as Eugeos, here. He’s got one of the most  pointless  callings in all the land!”

Eugeo had to stop himself from sighing. _There it was._ He didn’t understand why Zinc was so mean to him about it. He _knew_ that he was right, and his calling was the most pathetic one in all of Rulid. His fists clenched at his sides as his face heated up in shame, turning away from Kirito. It  was  pathetic, wasting eight hours a day, six days a week working to chop down a tree he would  _never_ get to see fall. There was no doubt in his mind Kirito would feel the same—

“Swordsman,” Kirito growled out, “that’s my calling, man. I’m a swordsman.”

Eugeo whipped his head around to look at Kirito so fast that his neck could’ve snapped. A swordsman? Did...  _ did Kirito remember something?! _

Zinc gave Kirito a once over, “A swordsman? A scrawny, weak-looking pip squeak like  _you_?  I bet you can’t even lift a sword.”

Anger bubbled in the depths of Eugeos chest, he had grown used to being made fun of for his calling, but there was  no  reason to pick on Kirito— especially about his body. Eugeo brought a hand to his chest, gripping anxiously at his shirt. He knew what it was like to be insecure about his body, too.

Zinc smirked, shoving the handle of his sword into Kiritos chest, 

“Go on, show us your skill.”

A moment of hesitation passed before Kirito closed a hand around the swords hilt, gripping onto it tight. There was no trace of emotion in his face as Zinc led them to a cutting stand, made of solid oak.

Eugeo held his breath as he watched Kirito step forward and get into the same stance that had caught his attention before, when he had first wielded the the axe. 

Kirito lunged forward, his boot skidding against gravel as his sword carved a line of pure light into the air...

and right through the cutting stand.

As the severed top of the stand slid off, hitting the dirt, there was only stunned silence. For once in his life, Zinc was speechless, his jaw on the floor. Eugeo almost couldn’t believe his eyes, he blinked a couple of times, making sure he was seeing things right. Time only started up again for him as he watched Kirito straighten up and stare down at the sword...

_ Why did his eyes look so hollow? _

“That was amazing! I didn’t know you had skills like that!” Eugeo beamed, choosing to chalk what he was seeing up to his imagination, “Maybe you were a sentinel in some big city!”

Kiritos head snapped upwards, as if he was just awoken from a trance. The light reignited in his eyes, a warm smile spreading across his face as he handed the shell-shocked Zinc back the sword.

“Just so you know,” Kirito began, “Eugeos calling isn’t pointless.  I  think that his calling is the most important one there is. You should respect it.”  


Kirito seized Eugeos hand by surprise, giving him no time to react before they began to run through the streets of Rulid. It took a second for Eugeo to process that—Kirito  defended  him! A fuzzy feeling rose in his chest as he took in the warmth of Kiritos hand in his own, feeling the butterflies in his stomach as he allowed Kirito to tow him along the path. For the first time since Alice was taken away, Eugeo felt like he was...

He squeezed Kiritos hand.

...falling in love again.


	5. I’ll Take Care of You

Kirito was  _ freaking out. _

He gripped impossibly tight onto Eugeos hand as he sprinted back in the direction of the church. He couldn’t believe that he just held a sword again, he  _ really  _ just held a sword again. The second his fingers closed around that swords base... it all came rushing back to him.  All  those memories he had repressed, all appearing before him in the blink of an eye. The memories he remembered were clear: the faces of those he  murdered, the terrifying shrieks of those who had died around him...  _ so scared  _ of dying... the Moonlit Black Cats calling out to him for help... hearing their screams as they perished before his eyes.

_ It was all too much. _

The moment that they stumbledthrough the doors of the church, Kirito released his lightning-grip on Eugeo, bolting up the stairs, nearly crashing into Selka before finally making it to the bedroom. As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, he crumpled into a ball on the floor, unable to hold back his terror-stricken sobs any longer. He couldn’t even  hold  a sword without breaking down!  That  was so pathetic...  _HE_ was so pathetic.

He slid himself across the polished wooden floor, his back hitting hard against the wall. His breaths came out rushed and his vision blanked out in the midst of each sob. He...  _ he couldn’t let Eugeo see him like this! _Eugeo had already gone through enough trouble because of him.  


When Zinc extended that sword out for him to take, when he called Eugeos calling  pointless...  he had lost it. He didn’t even  think  about what holding a sword again would bring back. The only thing he wanted to do in that moment was protect Eugeo. That was always the goal... to protect. He didn’t even know  how  to protect another person without a sword. The last time he held a sword... it was to  protect Asuna.

The therapists that his Aunt and Uncle got him after he survived SAO would  always  tell him that it was all in his head—it was  just a game!

It wasn’t real. 

Kirito clustered himself together even tighter against the wall, his thoughts  gushing  faster than his brain was able to manage.  It was real!  It didn’t matter whether the world he was in was physical  or  virtual. He was  forced  to fight in order to survive, he watched  real  people die!  _ It was real to him. _ The people who he  killed  were real, the friends he had made were real...

Sachi was real, and he  _ couldn’t save her. _

It was clear that the situation he was in now was different. It  was  real. It may be a simulation, but  who knows what would happen to him if he died in here? Would he die in the real world too?  What had even happened to his body after he got stabbed?!  Maybe if he died here, he’d get trapped in an empty void,  waiting  for his soul to erode away...

Or maybe, he’d just wake up in the STL, leaving this world behind and never seeing Eugeo again. Why...  _ why did his heart sting so much when he thought of losing Eugeo?  _

Did it even matter if he lived or died at all? 

Kirito winced, his arms flying up cover his face at the sound of the bedroom door swinging open. Closing in on himself even more, his breath trembled as he shoved his sobbing into his stomach. Frozen in his position on the floor, he refused to look at the person standing in the doorway.  _ He... couldn’t be weak.  _ Remaining still, he waited for the person to leave, tremors vibrating through him. If he didn’t look at the person, maybe they’d choose to leave him alone... _to_ _ give up on him.  _ The sad part was...

He wasn’t even sure if he wanted the person to go away. 

* * *

Eugeo stood stunned in the doorway, his heart twinging painfully in his chest as he watched Kirito silently cry on the ground. He observed silently, considering what he should do. Did Kirito even realize that he was in here?

One silent step after the other, he pushed himself forward, taking careful steps in Kiritos direction as to not scare him. That crying... it was the same as before. The same as in the forest.  


Eugeo crouched down, waiting for Kirito to notice that he was here, realizing after a couple of seconds that... Kirito wouldn’t look at him. 

This was going to take a while.

Eugeo leaned back against the wall, his fingers threading together atop his legs as he stared at the silent and seemingly inconsolable boy next to him. He was feeling that urge again... the same one that had overtaken him last night. The urge to hug Kirito, pull him into his arms and make him feel safe. He couldn’t remember the last time he had this feeling. 

“Kirito... is it safe to touch you right now? I’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want, but I need you to know that I’m here for you.” Eugeo spoke softly, not really expecting him to respond. He had never seen anyone in a state quite like the one Kirito was in at the moment. He wasn’t even sure that Kirito could hear him...

Eugeo gasped a little when he felt a shoulder bump against his. Kirito... was leaning into him.   
  


“D-don’t...” 

Eugeos heart throbbed hard as he watched Kirito struggle the word out. Kirito sounded so... broken. What had happened to get him to this state? Had something that Zinc said trigger a memory? Eugeo pulled Kirito in a side hug, taking on the invitation to touch him. This was good,  _ he was getting somewhere! _ Kirito was still crying, but at least Eugeo knew that he wasn’t at the point where nobody could reach him anymore.

“Okay, okay, I won’t go. I’m right here... I’ll take care of you, Kirito.”

Kiritos breath stuttered as something broke inside him, his sobs now ringing out loud and tears uncontrollably running down his cheeks. Eugeo pulled him closer, bringing the sobbing boys head to fall on his shoulder. Seeing Kirito like this—in so much pain, made his heart break.

“Kirito... what happened? Can you tell me?”

“—I’m sorry” Kirito cried, hiding into Eugeos shoulder, “I’m sorry, I-I... I didn’t know holding a sword again was going to feel like that.”

Eugeo sucked in a breath fast. _He must of remembered something! _ He begun to ask,

“Again? What else do you remember? You said earlier that your calling was... a swordsman.”

Kirito shakily nodded, gulping down his sobs. “I... I love being a swordsman, I always loved it... b-but...” he choked on his words, “I couldn’t save them, Eugeo,  _I couldn’t_ —“

Eugeo pulled him into a full-body hug, allowing Kirito to bawl and babble incoherently into his chest. He wanted to ask so bad:  _Who __couldn’t be saved?_ But he knew that was probably a bad question to ask when Kirito was like this. He pressed his cheek into Kiritos shoulder, trying to console him.

“I understand... I know you tried your best to save them, Kirito. It’s okay...”

After a couple of minutes, Kiritos sobbing died down, leaving him to quake silently into Eugeos chest, not making any move to pull away. Eugeo spoke again,

“I know it’s hard. I know... because there are people I could’ve saved too. Six years ago—when that Integrity Knight came to take Alice away, I was there. I just  _watched_.  I watched as he chained Alice up to his dragon and flew away. I didn’t do anything to stop it... I’m sure she hates me for that. You’re a lot braver than I am, Kirito, if you had been there... you would’ve done something.”

What happened that day was crystal clear in his mind. He had _wanted_ to do something... wait no, he _tried to do something!_ He was stopped by a barrier, something wired deep inside the confines of his soul to **stop.** An agonizing, mind-numbing pain thrumming through his right eye...

The gods punishment on him for even _thinking_ about breaking the rules of the Taboo Index.

Even though Kirito seemed a little shy, he could tell that Kirito was courageous. Things would have probably turned out better for Alice if Kirito had been there to protect her too.

Kirito...  _ and _ Alice? He almost had it. This was going to bother him  _ forever. _

Eugeo pulled back as he felt Kirito begin to move. Lifting his face up from Eugeos chest, Kirito looked him in the eyes, “You’re wrong... you were only a  kid. There’s no way that can even be your fault. I’m sure Alice knows that, and doesn’t hate you. From what you told me about her, she doesn’t sound like the kind of person that would  ever  hate you.”

Eugeo nearly laughed,  Kirito  was the one who needed to be comforted, and yet he  _ still  _ made him feel better.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Eugeo smiled warmly, ”Sometimes I wish that the Gigas Cedar would finally get chopped down so I can try to find her, but... there’s no way it’s  ever  going to fall in my lifetime.”

Kirito stared straight forward, a contemplative moment of silence passing before he shoved his face  even closer  to Eugeos, “Eugeo! Do you have anything sharper than that axe?”

Eugeos eyes widened, his heart racing as he was  _ painfully  _ aware that if he just leaned forward a little...

“I... do? I  _ think  _ I do. When Alice and I explored that cave... we actually did find a sword. I think that it’s a divine object.”

Kiritos brows furrowed, “Divine?”

“Oh!—that means that it was either made by the gods, or with their help.” Eugeo explained, he kept forgetting that since Kirito lost his memory, there were some things he still may not know. “I  would  use it... but it’s heavy, like  _ really  _ heavy.”

Kiritos breath hitched, “Can... can I see it?”

Eugeo smiled, happy that Kirito seemed to feel completely better now. “Sure! We can go to the Gigas Cedar tomorrow to see it. I’ll warn you now though... carrying that thing is tough. What do you even plan to do with it if you  _ can  _ hold it?”

Kirito blinked at him, “isn’t it obvious? We’re going to cut the tree down.”

Eugeo choked on his breath, the way Kirito had said that made it sound like it was the  _ easiest thing in the world. _

The words lingered on the tip of his tongue, that it was  _ impossible.  _ He wanted to break the news to him... but... Kirito had a determined shine to his eyes that somehow made Eugeo believe that even if  it was  impossible... Kirito would still find a way. Eugeo nodded, “Okay, we’ll try.”

Eugeo breathed in a shaky breath. Kirito  _ still  _ hadn’t moved away, sitting contently just inches from his face.  _ He could damn them both in a second—_

Both Eugeo and Kirito jumped at the sound of a knock at the door, being unexpectedly ripped away from their own little world. Kirito  _finally_ moved back. They heard Selkas muffled voice through the door, 

“It’s mealtime, guys! Come get some food if you want any.”

Both boys called out, “Okay!”

Kirito waited for Selka to walk back down the hall before he spoke, “I was actually wondering, how do you know Selka? I may be wrong... but she seems a bit...” he narrowed his eyes, thinking of the right word to describe her, “... secluded?”

Eugeo sighed, that was certainly a nice way of calling her a hermit. He wasn’t wrong though, Selka was  definitely  sheltered by her family after what happened to Alice.

“Selka is Alice’s little sister. I don’t  actually  know her all that well though. I don’t deserve to after what happened to Alice... she doesn’t even know  why  Alice was taken... poor girl.”

Kirito tilted his head, “Why don’t you tell her?”

“Well... she’d  hate  me if she knew...” Eugeos gaze moved downward, “It  _ was  _ my fault, no matter which way you look at it. It was my idea to try to get ice from the caves.”

 _ Had it been his idea? _ All he could remember was that Alice wasn’t too sure at first, but then she had been convinced by... _him?_ It had to have been him! It was always just the two of them together, after all.

Kirito moved closer to him again, “Eugeo...”

Eugeo fell silent, not looking at Kirito. He knew that if he’d look he’d see Kiritos pitying expression, and he  didn’t  want that. Pity wasn’t what he wanted, all he deserved was the guilt.  


“I better get home now, I’m pretty tired from doing my calling. Also, that bed isn’t exactly big enough for the both of us,” He joked, rising to his feet, “We can meet under the Gigas Cedar tomorrow at a quarter past the eleventh bell. Tomorrow’s the day of rest, so I can’t try to cut down the tree. I can still show you the sword though.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, Eugeo and... um...” Kirito looked away, blushing, “Thank you.”

Eugeo smiled back, there was just something about Kirito that made him feel all kinds of embarrassed and happy and  _ stupid. _

“It’s not a problem, I’ll see you tomorrow!” he called out as he left, heat radiating off of his face.

His smile didn’t leave his face as he walked down the stairs and through the halls, although he still felt nervous about leaving Kirito alone after the events that transpired over the past two days, he  was  happy that Kirito had begun getting his memories back. He didn’t like that they were traumatic memories, but it was a start. Eventually Kirito would get all his memories back and... go back home.

He couldn’t deny that he felt a sting of disappointment at the idea of Kirito leaving, he had felt that they were really starting to connect. Hecouldn't figure out why he was so comfortable around him, after all he was the most reckless person he had ever met... even when they were kids...

—Wait. that was wrong! He had only met Kirito yesterday. Why did he think that? What was with him thinking of Kirito as a kid... with Alice... _and_ him...

_ He felt like he was on the verge of understanding. _

He nearly crashed into Selka as he was exiting the church, he squeaked, grabbing hold onto the basket of laundry she was holding so it wouldn’t fall over, “S-sorry! Are you okay?”

Selka wiped away a strand of hair from her eyes, “I’m alright. What is with you and Kirito today nearly wiping me out? Speaking of...” her tone shifted from joking into serious, “How is he? He didn’t look too good earlier.”

Eugeo swallowed, “He’s doing better than before. Do you mind keeping an eye on him when I’m not here? I trust him not to anything stupid... but... it’ll make me feel better.”

Surprised, Selka nodded. “Don’t worry, if anything happens you’ll be the first person I come find.” 

Relieved, Eugeo exhaled. For a second he worried that that was too weird of a request. “Thanks Selka, it means a lot. I should get home now, enjoy dinner!” Eugeo called out as he moved around her, now on his route home. 

As Eugeo walked, he began to wonder what kind of person Kirito used to be before he lost his memories. He was  _ definitely  _ a good person, the way he cared for others.  Just  today, Eugeo noticed how much he worried for his friend that had been attacked, those people he had wanted to protect(but couldn’t), Selka, and even  _ him!  _ Nearly an absolute stranger...

_ Kirito was good. _

Eugeo finally arrived at his home, unable to get the black-haired swordsman out of his mind.


	6. Giving gifts

Kirito strolled through the halls of the church, the clicking sound of his boots echoing off of the stone walls as he walked. Ever since Eugeo had left the day before... Kirito couldn’t get it out of his head. He wanted to ask Selka  how _she felt_ about what happened to Alice. He couldn’t imagine what it could’ve been like for her, or the rest of their family. If anything like that had  ever  happened to Sugu... he wouldn’t know  _ what _ he’d do. 

He breathed in the crisp air as he stepped outside, the wind whistling in his ears as he admired the churches small, private garden. The entire garden was lined with shoulder-height neatly trimmed hedges, keeping safe various beds of flowers that he thought were beautiful, but didn’t recognize or know the names of. His breath came to a short-stop as he spotted Selka, who was watering a bed of light yellow flowers that faded into white at their centers. 

This was his chance to ask.

He walked through the gaps in the hedges, calling out to her, “Hey Selka! Good morning.”

Selka turned her head to look at him, cheerily responding, “Good morning! Have you come to do some gardening?”

Kirito had never taken much interest in gardening before. In both SAO  and  ALO, he had leaned more towards being a fisherman than a gardener. He couldn’t deny that gardening  _ did  _ look relaxing though, and that one of these days he’d try it out... but that day wasn’t today. He shook his head, “Nah, actually I’m glad that I found you. I wanted to ask you something.”

Selka tilted the tin watering can she was holding up, stopping her watering. “Okay, I’m listening.”

Something deep inside Kirito told him that this was probably a bad idea, but against that instinct he spoke, “I heard about what happened to Alice. I was wondering if you were okay... _Are you okay?”_

Selka smiled sadly, “I’m okay. It happened a long time ago, anyway. I just wish I knew  why  it happened, maybe then I could stop wondering.”

Kiritos breath hitched, “I... I know why.”

“You  know? Can you please tell me? I’ve asked Eugeo and my father... but neither of them would give me a clear reason.” She begged, stepping closer to Kirito.

He sucked in a sharp breath. Was it even his place to even tell her this information? He couldn’t back out  _ now _ though that he started. Lying about _this_ just seemed wrong on more levels than he was able to deal with.

“Eugeo told me that Alice accidentally crossed into the dark territory in the caves up north.” Kirito looked down at the moist grass, “He... blames himself for it ever happening.”

Kirito felt like that this was a situation where  nobody  was at fault, except maybe the system for kidnapping an eleven year old girl for a  literal  victimless crime.

Selka had a face of realization, “So  _ Alice  _ is the reason that Eugeos been so sad...”

Kiritos eyes widened, a confused look on his face, “Eugeos... sad? He always seemed okay to me.”

“He’s not!” She declared, “Haven’t you noticed how gloomy he is? Me and Sister Azalia have tried... but he refuses to open up to us. Only recently I noticed that... he’s starting to smile again.”

Now that he thought about it... he  _ did  _ recall a couple of moments he spent with Eugeo where he seemed... far away. So distant in one moment, and right by him smiling in the next. Kirito knew all too well that happiness could be faked, though. Smiles could lie. He sighed,  _ he knew it way too well. _

The way Selka described Eugeo kind of reminded him of himself when he was first freed from SAO. The only person he was comfortable opening up to at the time was Asuna, but she had been trapped in ALO. Eugeo seemed to be at least a  little bit open to him... Maybe he could think of something to do for Eugeo... something that would make him smile.

Kirito blinked, he had  _ no idea  _ what that could be. 

“Hey... Selka, can I ask you for a favor? Could you tell me what Eugeo likes? Like maybe...” He trailed his gaze around the garden, looking for a good example, “... his favorite... _flower?_ ”

“I don’t know Eugeo too well, but I actually  do  know that. I  think  I remember Alice telling me that his favorite kind of flower was blue roses.” Selka remembered, a small smile on her face as she began to water another patch of flowers. “But if you’re thinking about getting Eugeo some, I think it’s a bad idea. They’re  very  rare since the Taboo Index doesn’t allow anyone to grow them, not even those of noble level status, and not that many grow in the wild near Rulid.”

Kirito sighed, _Goddamn Taboo Index._ Why was that even prohibited?! If only he were in the real world where he  actually  had access to roses. “Okay... in that case do you know  _ anything else  _ Eugeo likes? Something that might make him smile.”

“I remember that he used to  love  when Alice would make him honey pies... she’d make those for him all of the time.” Selka reminisced, looking back up from the flowers.

A smile bloomed on Kiritos face,  _ now  _ _he was getting somewhere._ He may not be a very good baker... but that _certainly_ wasn’t going to stop him from trying. “Do you know how to make them?”

Selka nodded, “It’s not a very complicated recipe, you just need butter, water, flour, eggs, salt, honey and cream. We have all those things here at the church if you want to try to make Eugeo them.”  
  


Selka bent down to place the tin watering can on the gravel next to the flower bed before popping back up, shooting Kirito a look that told him to follow her. Kirito trailed behind her until they reached a spotless looking kitchen. All of the cabinets were painted a dark oak color with black countertops and a charcoal stove. Quickly and flawlessly, she pulled out all the ingredients and tools necessary to make honey pies and laid them on the counter. After giving the kitchen a once-over, he looked back to Selka who had fallen silent, a contemplative look shining in her eyes.

Selka turned on her heel, bowing to Kirito,“I have business to attend to now, thank you for telling me about what happened to Alice!”

“No problem!” Kirito called out to her as she rushed out of the kitchen.

Now how the  _ hell _ was he gonna do this?

*a couple of hours later*

Well Kirito knew one thing for certain, baking was  _ not _ his calling.

He had tried to make about... four honey pies so far. He burnt the first two, then added too much salt on the third( _he wasn’t even supposed to use salt_ _ at all!_), and then the fourth somehow managed to explode in the oven. Kirito sighed, _this was a mess._ It didn’t even matter that this world was virtual, it was just a universal law that in any and every world to exist: Kirito would suck at cooking. 

There were only enough ingredients to make one more, this was his last chance to get it right. He slowly added the ingredients to the bowl to make the pie crust, and added the cream and honey to a smaller bowl to make the filling. He flattened the pie crust down, poked holes in it, and molded it. Then, headded the filling to the crust and placed it in the oven.

Doing this reminded Kirito about all those times he baked with Sugu, he thought he was never that good at it, but...

_ “Kirito! These cookies are so amazing!” Suguha yelled, jumping towards Kirito and pouncing on him, wrapping him in one of her signature hugs. _

...She thought he was, and that was good enough for him.

Kirito slipped on an oven mitt, reaching into the oven to grab the honey pie and pull it out. His nose crinkled as he stared it it. It wasn’t the best, but it  looked edible. His head shot up at the chime of the eleventh bell, nearly dropping the honey pie in his shock. Luckily, he managed to catch it before the pan clattered to the ground. Realizing that he didn’t have much time left, he rushed, tying up the honey pie in cardboard paper with a string and making it as presentable as possible. He bolted from the kitchen, honey pie in hand and ready to meet up with Eugeo again.

_ He really hoped Eugeo would like it. _

* * *

Eugeo hummed as he prepared his breakfast, a calm smile on his face as he minced up a sausage and threw it into the searing pan in front of him. On days of rest, he usually found the time to make himself and his family something good to eat, even  if  only his mother and sister would fully appreciate it. Today, he had decided to make a fluffy omelet with tomato sauce, sprinkled with basil.

He had prepared seven omelets, five already plated before him for his family, and two he packaged into a container to take for him and Kirito. When he had first picked Kirito up... even when he hugged him. Kirito had felt so thin in his arms...  unhealthily  thin. Maybe Kirito didn’t even realize how thin he was...

Eugeo just couldn’t figure it out. The Taboo Index forbade acts such as starving oneself, so it  should  be impossible for Kirito to be  _ this  _ underweight without crossing that boundary. The best theory he had was maybe Kiritos family was poor, and just  couldn’t afford  to feed him, or maybe... Nevertheless, he  _ had  _ to motivate Kirito to eat, and if that took cooking every meal, Eugeo would  happily  comply.

He couldn’t prevent the grin that had formed on his face, he couldn’t wait to see Kirito today...

Eugeo was caught off guard when an arm reached over his shoulder and grabbed one of the omelet plates he prepared. He flipped around fast to catch the culprit, his sister, Sulinea.

“Woah Eugeo, you look happy. Anything good happen recently? I don’t think I’ve seen that smile in years” Sulinea observed, one hand on her chin while the other held up the plate she had snatched. “Hmmm... maybe a potential  lover?”

Eugeos face erupted into a full-on blush, “ _N-_ _no! _ I don’t know what you’re talking about!” He denied. Sulinea smirked at him, seeing through his obvious fib.

“looks like you got it bad Eugeo, tell whoever it is I say hello, and _...”_ Sulinea leaned forward to whisper in Eugeos ear, her plate clinking against the counter.

“Be sure to use a condom.”

Eugeo squeaked in embarrassment. If his face hadn’t flushed completely red before, _it_ _ sure was now._ Sulinea snatched her plate back and skipped out of the kitchen, leaving Eugeo frozen in place.

Currently at seventeen years old, Eugeo had  no  experience with romance whatsoever. The Taboo Index forbade such acts of love between two unmarried residents of the Human Empire. Forbade them from kissing, and also...

He gulped hard, thinking about the other thing the Taboo Index forbade, _sex._ Eugeos chest contracted, sinking downwards. He didn’t understand what was wrong with it. He understood why most of the other clauses were there, clear things, like devotion to the Axiom Church, to not murder, to not claim others belongings as your own...

But he couldn’t bring himself to understand  that  one.  


He stared at the ground, his gaze fierce and unmoving, _it didn’t even matter anyway!_ It’s not like he’d ever be able to garner enough courage to initiate anything of that nature with anyone, and even if he did... _he wouldn’t be allowed to!_ In conservative villages like Rulid, only firstborn sons and daughters were permitted to marry. 

When he was little, he’d always fantasize about marrying Alice, even though marriage would never be a possibility open to him. Up until now, he didn’t mind not being able to get married, since he never thought he’d fall in love again. Until now... he had never met anyone that could surprise him every single time.

But Kirito could. 

With each surprise, Eugeo found himself becoming more and more captivated with each passing moment in Kiritos presence. As he began his route to the Gigas Cedar, he passed the bakery, remembering the surprise of Kirito sharing his slice of bread with him. Walking through the gates, he remembered when Kirito sliced that wooden pole in two, he was _definitely_ surprised by that.

And then he took in the toasty warmth of the container in his hand, remembering how warm it felt in Kiritos... the thing that surprised him the most.

It was impossible though. Empire Fundamental law deemed same-sex marriage to be a sin. Even if the law allowed them to be together... would Kirito...

Eugeo sighed, guess Sulinea was right. He has... _“got it bad”_ for Kirito. Not even his feelings for Alice had grown this fast, and he spent almost every day with her as a child for years. For Stacias sake... _he’s only known Kirito for a day!_

Eugeo stopped on the dusty dirt path, confirming once more in his mind that he _did_ only meet Kirito a day before... but...

_Why didn’t that feel right though?_

“Eugeo! Wait up!”  


Eugeo froze in place, fear overtaking him as he recognized that voice, Zinc.  He kept his legs firmly planted on the ground, prepared to start running if he needed to.  What was he going to do to him after what Kirito did yesterday?  He turned around, knowing better than to  _ ever  _ have his back turned to Zinc.

He watched as Zinc attempted to catch his breath in front of him, bent over at the knees. How could he be so out of breath? How long had he been chasing after Eugeo? Zinc eventually collected himself, lifting his face upward to Eugeo.

“I’m glad that I caught up to you.”

Eugeo took a step back, trying his best to not look too intimidated. It’s not like Zinc could ever  physically hurt him, but his attempts at harassment did not go unnoticed. The worst things he had done were limited to hiding small lizards in his lunch, or hiding his shoes for a day, making his feet all bruised up. That was just when they were  _ kids  _ though. What would Zinc do now? He forced out a “H-hey, What’s up?”

Zinc stepped closer, making Eugeo wince as a tinge of anxiety started to gnaw away at his brain.  “I wanted... to apologize. I was acting like a real dick to you and your friend. I really am sorry.”  
  


Eugeo stood silent, completely speechless.  _ That was not at all the response he expected. _

Zinc detached the sword joined to his hip, holding it out to Eugeo, “Also, I was wondering if you could give this to your swordsman friend. It’s my old one, and since he forgot what his calling was I assume he lost his sword. I don’t need this one anymore... so...”

Eugeos eyes widened at the mere sight of the sword.  It was incredible.  It’s blade was ebony, seemingly made of high-quality alloy steel. It’s edges were sharp, fading from a dazzling sliver into the darkest black, all tied together with a silver handle. There probably couldn’t have been a better sword to suit Kirito, in his opinion. Just like the raven-haired boy, the sword was dark, mysterious, and unmistakably  _ beautiful. _

He reached out, taking the sword from Zinc hesitantly. This could  still  be a trick, but Eugeo really believed he was being genuine. He finally found his voice again, “Wow... thank you, Zinc! I’ll get this to him right away.”

Zinc grinned at him before running off in the direction he came from.  _ Maybe... he wasn’t too bad after all. _

After a couple more minutes of walking, Eugeo made it to the base of the Gigas Cedar. He smiled as he caught sight of Kirito laying back on the grass in the shade, his eyes closed as the breeze made his clothes flutter around his form. Eugeo stepped forward right by his head, smiling down on him. “Hey, Kirito! You’ll  never  guess what just happened!” 

At that, Kiritos eyes snapped open, immediately catching sight of the sword in Eugeos grasp. “You... can hold the sword now?” he guessed.

Eugeo beamed with excitement, “Nope, but good guess. This is a different sword. Zinc gave it to me to give to you, he said that he was sorry for how he acted!”

Eugeo  immediately  caught the glint of fear and curiosity in Kiritos eyes.

“B-but you don’t  have to  use it if you don’t want to!” He stammered, not wanting to pressure Kirito into anything he wouldn’t want. He had  stupidly  forgotten that Kiritos panic attack yesterday had been about him  holding  a sword... how could he have thought that this was a good idea? 

Kirito stared up at the sky, the gears in his mind turning before he plainly spoke, outstretching his palm above his head, “I want to.”  


Eugeo hesitated in handing him the sword, he  _ knew  _ Kirito had a bad history with swords. He trusted Kiritos judgement, it was just...

“Kirito... just promise me you won’t overdo it.” He placed the sword in Kiritos hand.

Eugek squeaked in suprise as Kirito grabbed his wrist instead of the sword, yanking him down on the grass next to him “ _H-_ _hey! ”  _

Kirito held onto his hand solidly, “I won’t,  _ promise.” _

Eugeo thumped his head back onto the grass, At this point, he was beginning to suspect that Kirito was being  _ this cute  _ on purpose.

Kirito spoke again, now moving to sit up, “Oh! Before I forget...” Kirito placed a small brown package in his hand, “...this is for you. I... um... made it for you, Eugeo. It’s—it’s an, um—a thank you for everything you’ve done.” Kirito fell over his words, his face reddening more with each second that passed.

Eugeos heart fluttered in the depths of his chest, _Kirito had made_ _ him  _ _something?_ He eyed him curiously, pulling the packages string loose and allowing it to fall open on his lap. It was...

“...A honey pie.” 

_ Kirito made him a honey pie. Eugeo could feel his heart about to explode. _

“Y-yeah!” Kirito began to ramble, “I made it myself, although Selka told me what the ingredients were.I kept messing it up so I only was able to make one that turned out okay... it’s a little burnt, and I added too much salt...  _ wait _ _I wasn’t supposed to add salt!_ and—“

“It’s perfect!” Eugeo interjected, unable to contain his excitement. It  was  perfect no matter what it was going to taste like, because Kirito had made it  _ just for him. _ He hadn’t had a honey pie since...  _ he couldn’t even remember.  _ He took a big bite into the warm crust, the honeys sweetness rolling on his tongue. Surprisingly, Kiritos mistake of adding salt somehow managed to bring out the honeys sweetness even more!

Kirito stuttered nervously, “I-is it good? I’ve never heard of honey pies before Selka brought it up to me today...”

Eugeo beamed, “It’s amazing! I  love  it!”

Eugeo did a double take at the smile that had curled onto Kiritos face.  _ Was that... his real smile?  _ This wasn’t the polite smile he pulled around the villagers of Rulid, or that fake smile he’d wear to pretend he was okay, this was the smile he had after slicing that wooden pole... a real smile.

Eugeo loved it.


	7. The Blue Rose

Kiritos heart did flips in his chest as he watched Eugeo excitedly devour the honey pie he made. He could hardly believe it. _He liked it!_ Looks like Sugu wasn’t the only one who thought he was good at baking, after all.

Swallowing the final remains of the honey pie, Eugeo smiled, “Actually... I made you something too! I didn’t know if you’d eat breakfast, so I made some extra when making them for my family.”

Eugeo made something...  _ for him? _

He blinked slowly, watching intently as Eugeo extended a small, white container out to him. His response was automatic, “Oh,  it’s fine!  I’m not hu—“

He was cut off by the audible rumbling of his stomach, his body ultimately betraying him. The blush that was  already  powdered across his cheeks worsened. Oh god. That was embarrassing...  _ embarrassing...  ** embarrassing... ** _

Eugeo nudged the container closer, “So you  _ haven’t  _ eaten! Come on, Kirito, you gotta eat or else your life can decrease! Don’t make me feed it to... you.“ Eugeo stopped short, blush rapidly spreading on his face as he realized what  _ exactly  _ he just said aloud. 

Kirito sat in stunned silence.

_ Why did that... excite him a little? _

Eugeo stammered out, _“W-wait...”_

_ ”—Eugeo” _

“ _I DIDN’T_ —”

“ _Eugeo, really it’s—“_

Kirito snatched the container from Eugeos hand, “ _its fine_ _._ I’ll eat it.”

Trying to save face, Kirito hesitantly popped the cap off of the plastic container, his eyes widening slightly as he looked at the... omelet? He recognized this from western cuisine, but had never tried anything like it other than the tomagoyaki that his auntwould sometimes make. This was...

“Why is there _two_ of them?” Kirito asked, looking back up at Eugeo who had seemed to almost fully recover.

“Well,  _ I  _ was supposed to have one too... but I guess now I can’t since I ate that honey pie. You can have both, don’t be shy!”

Kirito squinted down at the omelet. _Why was he feeling like this?_ His heart thumped vigorously against his chest whenever he was this close to Eugeo. Did he...

_ like Eugeo? _

He quickly stuffed a piece of the omelet into his mouth,  _ he couldn’t like him in that way!  _ He had always liked  _ girls  _ before, he had always...

His thought was interrupted as he fully tasted the still-hot omelet on his tongue. It was light and fluffy, with remnants of sausage and cheese inside of it. It tasted...  _ amazing.  _

“This tastes great! I didn’t know that you could cook!” Kirito gleamed, absolutely amazed by Eugeos ability. He knew nothing about judging food, but even  _ he _could tell how high quality the omelet was. “You must’ve been cooking for a while to make something as put together as this. It has spices and everything!”

Eugeo turned away timidly, smiling cutely at Kiritos compliment, “I started learning how to cook when I was seven. Alice was the one who had first introduced it to me... but my sister is the one who taught me most of the things I know.”

Kiritos eyebrows shot up, “You have siblings?”

That definitely came as a surprise to Kirito. If Eugeo had siblings, why did he seem so...  _ lonely? _

Eugeo looked back at him, his hair swishing against his cheek at his fast movement, “Yeah! I have three! Two brothers and a sister. I’m not too close with my brothers because they are a lot older than me, but I get along well with my sister. I love her... even though her favorite hobby happens to be teasing me.”

Kirito smiled sadly as he thought about Suguha. Even though she was actually his cousin, they had been raised as siblings. They had such a great relationship until he had reached middle school. He had begun to push her away once he learned that she wasn’t  _actually_ his sister, and his aunt and uncle weren’t his real parents. They got close again after the SAO incident. After being separated from her for two years, he made sure to spend lots of time with her, going to her kendo lessons to watch, helping her with her sword skills(at a moderate distance), she and Sinon had even tried to do exposure therapy with him. In that time, he had made some progress.  Now,  he could think about swords  _ and  _ look at them! Holding and fighting with one was another story though...

“Hey... Kirito?”

He blinked, his vision readjusting as he realized that Eugeo was staring at him. He gulped down the final remains of the omelet. “Sorry! Did you say something? I zoned out... it happens sometimes.”

“No, it’s fine! I didn’t say anything, you just went all quiet.” Eugeo stood up and held a hand out to Kirito, “Are you ready to see the sword?”

Kirito took his hand, his shoes scuffing through the dirt as Eugeo pulled him to his feet. He smiled, “I’m ready, so... where is it?” 

Eugeo released his hand, his fingers carelessly brushing against Kiritos as he let go. “Wait here! I’ll go get it!”

Kirito watched as he ran off in the direction of a shabby-looking, wooden shed. He could  _ still  _ feel the way Eugeos hand was against his... he...

_ so maybe he was bisexual. _

The way Eugeos hand had felt against his own, it felt so... real. When SAO came out, Kirito was simply astonished by the way that felt, but compared to  this... it couldn’t even hold a candle to it. 

_ This really was something else. _

“ _Aha! _ I found it!” he heard Eugeo happily cheer, followed by the sound of boxes falling against wood.

_ He  was really something else too. _

Eugeo dragged what Kirito assumed was the sword, wrapped in canvas cloth on the ground, trailing a groove into the dirt. Just  _ how  _ heavy was this sword? Eugeo couldn’t even carry it! Kirito kneeled down, just staring at it before reaching out to unwrap the sword from it’s dusty casing. 

“Be careful,” Eugeo warned, “if this thing falls on your foot, it’ll leave more than a scratch.”

Kiritos nodded, brushing his fingers over the dry material as he unbound the cloth. He took in the sight of the sword, inhaling in awe.  _ No way...  _ this had to be the most beautiful sword he had ever seen(and he had seen  a lot  of swords). The material it was made from appeared to glow as the suns light reflected off of it. Kirito couldn’t tell what exactly it was made out of, but it wasn’t metal. He breathed in as he noticed the beautifully sculpted rose at the swords base. _A_ _ blue  rose... _

_ Now _ he understood! This was how Selka knew. Eugeo and Alice found the sword together—Eugeo must’ve mentioned to Alice that he loved how the blue rose looked, and then Alice came home that night and told Selka. Wow...

Kirito closed his hand around the swords hilt, his fingers trembling a bit. He... he wanted to...

He sucked in a surprised breath, blinking fast as he felt a hand languidly wrap around his on the swords hilt.

“Kirito...”

He lifted his head up to face Eugeo, whose eyes were solid, sparking emerald staring fixedly on his own as he was analyzed.

Kirito tightened his grip, this was something he could do for Eugeo. He’d never be able to help cut down the Gigas Cedar if he couldn’t  _ at least  _ do this. If Eugeo wouldn’t break the Taboo Index and abandon his calling... this was the only other way to free Eugeo. He wanted to try.

He smiled kindly, “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”

Eugeo sighed as his worried gaze eased up, letting go to Kiritos disappointment, “Okay, I won’t stop you.”  
  


Kiritos arm shook as he tried his best to lift the sword, it was...  _ so... heavy..._

“What the—? How did you get this thing here  all the way  from the northern caves?” Kirito asked, baffled at its crushing weight. Eugeo _really wasn’t kidding_ when he said it was heavy.

Eugeo said indubitably, “I dragged it. It took me three months to do it though since I only had the energy to do it on days of rest.”

“T-three months?!” Kirito gasped, nearly dropping the sword in his shock, but regaining his grip fast. “ _Damn. _ Why’d you even bother?”

Eugeo shifted his eyes skyward, thinking for a moment, “I guess I was hoping that one day, I’d have the strength to swing it,” he said, staring at the sword longingly, “I’m still not strong enough to, though. Do you think you are?”

“I’m... down to try, I’m a swordsman... after all...” he struggled to get the words out, preaching false confidence.  _ Was  _ he a swordsman any more? He hadn’t really fought with one in a while. He had used his illusion magic to fight in ALO, in GGO he had used a lightsaber, and in that newer augmented reality game, Ordinal scale, he’d managed to fight with twin daggers... not an actual sword though. He could  barely  _hold_ a sword without falling to pieces.  
  
He tried to snap the negative thoughts out of his mind. He was going to swing this sword. He was going to do it _and_ be okay. 

_This was for Eugeo._

Kirito unsheathed the sword with great force, it was  _ so  _ _heavy._ Eugeo must be ripped after carrying this monster every day of rest for three whole months. Kirito couldn’t help but picture was Eugeo looked like shirtless...  _ God _ _he’d be_ —Kirito needed to  ** stop** **.** This was a dangerous line of thought he was going down and if he didn’t stop now he’d be in the center of a  _ very __embarrassing_ situation.

_ Oh yeah,  he was definitely bisexual. No doubts about it. _

Kirito pensively stared at the sword, admiring it as he leaned it against the ground for a moment. He couldn’t understand  how  it was so heavy. It had to be heavier than he _and_ Eugeo together! As realistic as this world was, it  had  to have a system. When he sliced that pole yesterday... he had felt a sword skill activate. Possibly... did the sword have a Stacia window? How did Eugeo open it again? He started swiping his finger in the air in front of the sword.

“If you’re trying to open its Stacia window, you need to draw an ‘S’” Eugeo said over Kiritos shoulder. 

“Okay,” Kirito tried again, and this time it worked.He read over the information on the purple screen, noticing that it’s only stats were durability and something called “object control authority”, which was set at forty-five. Wait, _he remembered now!_ When Eugeo showed him his own Stacia window, that  also  had “object control authority” listed. Kirito opened up his own Stacia window to see that his own object control authority was thirty-eight.  _ That had to be it! _There had to be a way to level it up somehow...

“Hey, Eugeo... how do I level up my own object control authority? Mines lower than the swords, so I think that might be why we can’t hold it.”

Eugeo tilted his head, looking as innocent and clueless as ever. “Level... up? What does that mean?”

  
Kirito sucked in a sharp breath.  _ Crap.  _ He had forgotten that there was  no way  Eugeo would know video game terms. There were no, “levels” here. He had to be more careful.

“Oh, sorry about that. I meant how could I make  _ this,_” he pointed at the screen, “number increase”, Kirito corrected himself, hoping Eugeo wouldn’t ask further about the phrase. 

Eugeo brought his hand to his chin, thinking, “Hm... mines only ever gone up as I’ve aged, but I’m sure it’s not  _ impossible  _ to raise it in other ways.”

Kirito wondered: What would happen if he swung the sword without being at that level?

_ Well, only one way to find out. _

He swiped closed both Stacia windows, lifting the sword back up, “I’m going to try to hit the tree with it, I want to see what damage it can do. What’s its life at now?” Kirito asked, taking slow, short-measured strides towards the Gigas Cedar.

Eugeo walked up to the tree, opening its Stacia window. “It’s currently at... two-hundred-thirty-two-thousand-three-hundred-fifteen,” he hung his head sadly, “so much more left to go...”

“We can do it, I’m sure of it,” Kirito stepped up, a confident aura radiating from him, “Step back, I don’t know how well I’ll be able to control this thing with how heavy it is.” At that, Eugeo nodded, stepping out of range.

Kirito hoisted the sword up to his shoulder, his knees almost buckling under its weight. With a fierce grunt, he swung the crystal blade as hard as he could into the tree, his teeth gritted together. The wind was knocked out of him as the force of his swing was reflected back at him, effectively knocking him to the ground behind him.

* * *

Eugeo watched as Kirito crashed to the dirt beneath him, the blue rose sword flying and piercing into the ground. He called out, “Kirito!”

He ran to the Kiritos side, his knees scraping against the dirt as he slid to his knees. He scanned Kirito all over, looking for any injuries he could heal. He gulped, “Did you hurt yourself?”

A moment of terror-filled silence passed before Kirito snorted, breaking out into laughter, “That was  _ awesome!  _ I want to do it again.”

Eugeo sighed, relieved that Kirito didn’t break something. Only  _ Kirito  _ could get thrown on his ass and have a reaction like that. “ _No way. That’s _enough for today. Are you okay to walk? That  really  looked like it hurt”, Eugeo stood up, holding his hand out to Kirito.

Kirito grabbed ahold of his hand, pulling himself to his feet. “I’m all right, I told you I wouldn’t overdo it.”

That  _ wasn’t  _ overdoing it?!

_Okay..._ so he was right in his prediction that Kirito was courageous. Kirito was courageous to the point of it being downright _dangerous ..._

  
Before he knew it, Kirito was back in front of the Gigas Cedar, looking at it’s Stacia window. Kirito groaned,

“It took off... _one_ point.”  
  


Eugeo couldn’t help but let his jaw drop. It _actually_ took off a point? He said, “Usually every month I get an average of fifty points off, so one whole point in a hit is _incredible_!”

At that bit of information, Kirito lit up, 

“That’s great! Now we just gotta find a way to increase object control authority, and we should be golden!”

After Eugeo hauled the blue rose sword back to the shed and Kirito latched the sword Zinc gifted him onto his belt loop, the two boys finally began to walk back to the church. As soon as they arrived, they were approached by the head sister of the church, Sister Azalia. She called out to them, 

“By any chance, have either of you seen Selka? I have not seen her all day, and I’m beginning to worry. She has missed prayers and she is not in her room” Sister Azalia stated, her voice worried yet stern.

Eugeo frowned, that really wasn’t like Selka. She was usually so responsible,  even  leading prayers on the day of rest when she didn’t have to. “I’m sorry... I don’t. I haven’t seen her since yesterday.” 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s around. We can help you try to find her.” Kirito reassured her.

Sister Azalia nodded, “Alright. Please let me know if you find her anywhere. I’m going to go search for her in the shops.” 

Once she took off, briskly walking down the stone-paved street, Kirito turned around to face Eugeo, “Okay, so where should we look first? You know your way around Rulid better than I do, where would Selka have  _business_?”

Eugeo raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean by “business”?”

“Oh, she told me that she had “business” to tend to after I asked her how to make the honey pie,” Kirito leaned back, “Now that I think about it, she was acting kind of weird...”

Eugeo swallowed, something about this didn’t feel right. The only business Selka  ever  had was church related. He asked cautiously, “ _Kirito_... What  else  did you guys talk about before she left? Anything important?”

Kirito closed his eyes, willing his memory on the best he could and relaying it: “I remember... I asked Selka what a good gift for you would be, how to make honey pies, I told her what happened to Alice...”

Wait.  _ Alice?  
_

it had been years before, but Eugeo recalled a past conversation with Selka, remembering how she wanted to be _just like_ her big sister...

Eugeos eyes widened in realization, “Kirito! What if Selka went to the northern caves to try and copy her?! The caves are full of goblins... it’s not safe there!”

Kiritos eyes shot open, his voice booming and frantic, “Oh... _shit_ _._ Lead the way, Eugeo. She left  hours  ago, there’s no time to waste!”

They ran fast, taking off towards the northern caves. Eugeo ran as fast as his legs could carry him. They  _had_ to save her. He couldn’t let what happened to Alice happen again. 

No matter what it took, they were going to save Selka.


	8. The Sacred Arts

Kirito could not believe how  _ stupid  _ he had been.

The razor-sharp edges of the wind felt as though they were slicing into his skin as he sprinted through the forest, tailing after Eugeo. He moved swiftly, circumventing various fallen branches as he pushed himself further physically than he had in years. They were  almost  there. 

He hadn’t even  considered  that something like this might happen. Eugeo mentioned that it went against the Taboo Index to cross into the Dark Territory. Alice had  _ accidentally  _ broken that rule... So did that mean that Selka was going to break that rule of her own volition? This was too difficult for even  him  to comprehend. Possibly... could an Artificial Fluctlight be influenced into breaking a rule? Could  _ Eugeo  _ be—

“Kirito— _wait!”_

Kirito stumbled forward as his arm was suddenly pulled back, keeping him on the verge of running into the large cavern in front of him, the entrance to the northern caves. He whipped his head around to see that Eugeo was the one holding onto his arm.  Why was he stopping? They didn’t have time for this! He tried to rip his arm out of Eugeos grasp. “W-what? Eugeo, why are you—“

Eugeo tightened his grip, keeping Kirito locked in place. “It’s too dark! We won’t be able to see anything if we went in like this. Just give me a second,” 

Eugeo released his arm before bending down to pluck a dandelion from the grass. He raised the flower, and chanted:

“System Call: Generate Luminous element... Adhere.” 

Kirito couldn’t prevent the choked gasp that escaped his lips as he watched fragments of light flow from the tips of Eugeos fingers into the dandelion, making it glow. What... what the hell was that?! That was a system command... _Eugeo just used a system command!_ Kirito stammered, his gaze flickering in between Eugeo and the shimmering dandelion, “W-what? How did you just... _What?”_

Eugeo tilited his head, his expression entirely too innocent, “Is there something wrong?”

Kirito couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. Was Eugeo aware that his reality had a system supporting it? “You just said... system. Do you even know what that means?” 

“Nothing. It’s just a word” Eugeo shrugged, tilting his head the opposite way, “Well, more like a command we use to call upon the gods. That was a simple Sacred arts spell that anybody can do. As long as you have enough skill, you’ll be blessed with the art you summon.”

Kirito released a shaky breath, Eugeo thought... that he was casting a magic spell? This world was  so  realistic that seeing the use of magic had completely caught him off guard. It hadn’t even occurred to him that magic was a thing here in the first place. Whatever it was, he didn’t have the time to think about it, they still needed to find Selka.   


Kirito nodded, “Okay, let’s go.”

They allowed the gleaming light of the dandelion to guide their way as they walked through the cave, the only sound they could hear being the echo of their own footsteps.

Kiritos teeth grinded in his mouth as his mind raced far out of his control. Selka could have broken the Taboo Index already, what if they were too late?  _ Another person would die because of hi_ _s actions._ They needed to think of a back-up plan just in case.

“If Selka does cross into the Dark Territory, would an Integrity Knight come right away?”

“No. They wouldn’t come until the next day. The Integrity Knight will fly to the village, and arrest her there... just like six years ago” Eugeo explained dejectedly.

Kirito let out a sigh of relief, “That’s great! Then even if we’re too late to stop her, we still have a chance to keep them from getting her. We can just hide her somewhere outside the village.”

Eugeo stopped in his tracks, a stunned look on his face, “But that would be interfering! We can’t...”

Kirito continued on, “Of course we can. Even  _ if  _ she broke the Taboo Index—“

“—Thats not what I meant!  _ We  _ would be breaking the Taboo Index if we did anything like that!”

Kirito came to a standstill.

There was  _ no  _ _way_ he was willing to believe that Eugeo wouldn’t be capable of breaking rules. Shouldn’t he  _ want  _ to break the rules when it came down to doing what’s right? Didn’t he realize that Alice had been taken away _because_ of an unjust ruling by the Taboo Index?

 _ Could  _ Eugeo be influenced to break the rules of the Taboo Index? 

“Eugeo... do you think that upholding the rules of the Taboo Index matters more than being able to save someone’s life?”

“W-what?! You can’t ask me to choose between someone’s life and the Taboo Index! That’s...” Eugeo trailed off, lifting a hand to cover his eyes.  


Kirito furrowed his brow. There  _ has _ to be some way to make Eugeo understand that sometimes, what’s right and what’s legal are two different things.

Kirito took a step towards Eugeo, “What about Alice? Do you think that she deserved to be taken away for what she did?”

Eugeo took a step back, now backed up against the caverns wall, “ _Huh?_ Of course I—“

Kirito took another step, getting closer, “Do you think that  every  rule needs to be followed? That you  _ don’t have a choice in—“ _

Eugeo sputtered, “I...  that’s not—“

Kirito took a final step forward, silver gray eyes staring straight into aquamarine.

“Isn’t there at least  _ one  _ rule in the Taboo Index that you think doesn’t seem right? A rule that you _want_ to break?”

Eugeos eyes widened, a flash of light glimmering across them. 

“Kirito... I—“

Eugeo was disrupted by the ringing of a scream up ahead. Eugeos voice strained, panicked, “That was Selka!”

As Eugeo stuffed the illuminated dandelion in his pocket and ran towards the source of the scream, Kirito followed close behind, his hand flying instinctively to the handle of his sword. As they entered a chamber full of green creatures, Kirito acted quickly in seizing hold of Eugeos wrist, pulling him close so they were both hidden behind a chunk of ice.

Kirito peered around the barrier, air puffing out of his nose at the sheer amount of goblins that were in this place. This was  _ bad.  _ There was no way they would ever find Selka if—

Eugeos voice rang out, amplified by their close proximity to the wall, “Kirito, look, _It’s Selka!”_

Kiritos blood ran cold as the goblins took notice of them, their stares piercing into him before he dropped to his knees to cover himself from their view.  _ Fuck. _ The goblins knew that they were here and they were completely outnumbered. His glanced over at Eugeo, eyes widening as he noticed the paralyzed state that he was in.

Eugeo was trembling in place as he stared at the goblins, a hand clasped over his mouth to attempt to mute his shaky sobs, “K-Kirito _I didn’t m-mean to...”_

Kirito placed his hands on Eugeos shoulders, holding him steady. “Don’t worry. It’s okay. Calm down and listen to me very carefully.”

Eugeo swallowed down his whimpers, stiffly nodding.

This was going to be rough, He’d somehow have to protect Eugeo  _ and  _ save Selka. If Eugeo could fight, or  _ at least  _ dodge, this would probably be a lot easier. That wasn’t something Kirito could just ask of him though. Eugeo apparently knew where Selka was...  _ he got it! _

Kirito whispered, “When I count to three, we’re going to charge past them. You grab Selka and _run._ I’m going to fight them so you can get away.”

Eugeos eyes widened, his voice shaking uncontrollably, “But there’s too many! You’ll...”

Kiritos hold on Eugeos shoulders tightened as he heard the grumbling of the goblins getting closer to them. There wasn’t any time to argue with Eugeo on this. They would both fight. He conceded.

“Okay fine. Once I knock one down, try to grab one of their swords. Just slash and dodge.”

“B-but I’ve never fought with a sword before!” Eugeo protested.

Kiritos voice hardened, “Just swing it like you would with your axe. Come on. You can do this, Eugeo.”

Kirito unsheathed his sword as quietly as possible, taking a deep breath before he started to count hushed enough so only Eugeo would be able to hear.

“One.”

A tremor ran through his thigh as he shifted his crouching position into a half-standing one.  _ This wasn’t the time to be afraid!  _ He needed to be like he was back then, the hero he used to be back in SAO. 

“Two.”

Kirito watched as Eugeo got into his own starting position by putting both hands on the icy ground to push himself up. Kirito tightened his grip around his swords base.  He was going to protect Eugeo and Selka even if it cost him his life. The final word left his lips in a yell:

_ “Three!” _

He moved fast, charging towards the closest goblin and rounding his sword into its back. The goblin twisted itself around, growling and snarling as it donned its own sword.

Eugeo ran past the horde of goblins, pushing some of them down that stood in his way. Switching his attention between the fight and Eugeo, Kirito could  finally  see where Selka was. She was unconscious in a wooden wagon far off in the corner of the cave. Her clothes were slightly tattered, no injuries visible to the naked eye.

The goblin Kirito was dueling with fell with a surprise uppercut to the chest, its sword clattering to the stone beneath it as it began to claw away. Kirito saw his chance, and chucked the sword in Eugeos general direction. “Don’t think! Just start swinging!” he yelled out, clashing his sword together with another goblin.

Eugeo snatched the sword from the ground a few feet away from him, fumbling with it as a goblin slowly approached him. As he began to charge towards he goblin, the illuminated dandelion fell from his pocket, slowly sinking in the air between him and the goblin. The goblins face contorted in the light, quickly cowering away in its fear. Eugeos eyes widened at his discovery, “T-the light... The goblins are afraid of it!”

The goblin Kirito was fighting was flung into one of the wall of the cavern, the stone behind it making a cracking noise. Kirito flipped around to see a larger goblin who wielded a lengthy cleaver fast approaching. The Goblin leader roared at him, “I am the great Ugachi! You dare challenge me?!”

Kirito clenched his teeth together as he glanced at Eugeo, who was using his dandelion to blind the goblins before slashing them down with his sword.

He turned his head to look at Selka, who was still unconscious. She had likely been here for hours... who knows what the goblins did to her in that time. A stream of fire coursed through his veins. He snarled,

“I won’t just challenge you, _I’ll conquer_ _you!” _

Kirito and Ugachis swords crashed together, hacking, slashing, and dodging at each other for what felt like forever. Kirito quickly glanced over at Eugeo at the sound of a strained yelp, relief washing over him the moment he realized that Eugeo hadn’t actually been hit. The wind was forcibly knocked out of Kiritos lungs as Ugachi kicked him in his stomach, sending him crashing into the stone wall covered in ice, making it completely shatter atop of him as he convulsed in pain.

All he could hear was a sharp ringing in his ears as his body stung.  _ So...  _ realistic. Virtual reality had  never  hurt this bad. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes as he watched Ugachi take slow, menacing steps towards him.  _N-no! It’s not over yet!_ Kirito tried to reach for his sword that has skidded a few feet out of his reach, and found that his arm was completely numb. He slowly looked back to Ugachi, who was now stood in front of him. His cleaver raised and about to come down. Kirito slammed his eyes shut, the tears leaking out.

He was about to die.

* * *

  
Eugeo lifted his head to see Kirito get kicked into the wall of the cave, the sheet of ice behind him shattering and clinking against the stone, sounding like rain hitting pavement. He trembled in fear, completely paralyzed where he stood.

_ It was happening again. _

Another one of his friends was being taken away... suffering. He couldn’t just  stand here  like he did back then... but _he was scared._ No... he couldn’t make that mistake again, _the mistake he made with Alice!_

Eugeo tightened his grip around his sword as he watched Ugachi slowly and sadistically walked towards Kirito. A nasty, perverse smile on his face as he raised his cleaver. Kirito was frozen, trembling as his eyes slammed shut. Eugeo leapt towards Ugachi, shrieking,

_“Kirito!”_

Kiritos eyes snapped open at the sound of Eugeos and Ugachis swords clashing together, Eugeo grit his teeth together as he yelled, 

“It’s time...” 

He stabbed his blade forward at Ugachi only to be blocked.

“...I’ll fight!...”

Ugachi tried to slice at his arm, but Eugeo deflected the attack with his own sword.

“...and protect my friends!”

Kirito gasped out a pained cry, _“No!_ Eugeo, _run!”_ Falling over himself, he attempted to get up, but instead doubled over in pain as blood gushed from the gashes on his arm and back. 

In the split second Eugeos attention was diverted, Ugachi hammered his foot into the leg supporting his weight, compelling him to stumble forward. His eyes widened as he choked on air, tears forming as Ugachi sliced him square in the stomach. He hit the wall hard before falling to the ground, his back being pierced by shards of ice.  


Eugeo watched as blood poured from the large gash on his stomach, it was...  _ numb.  _ The pain had completely evaporated as he looked down at his hand that was bathed in his blood. In the corner of his eye, he could see that Kirito was swaying on his feet, stumbling towards him.

_ “Eugeo!” _

Eugeo clenched his teeth together,  the blood wouldn’t stop!  Was this... his death?  _ He had to tell Kirito now! _

“Kirito, I—“ he coughed up a glob of blood as a shiver ran up his spine. Kirito clutched onto his hand desperately, “ Eugeo!  Please hang on... we made a _promise!_ We’d survive together!”

Eugeo blinked, his vision beginning to fizzle out at the edges. A... promise?

Tears clouded the small window of vision he still possessed as he remembered... _their promise._

“Hey, Kirito... me, you, and Alice made a promise. We promised to— to protect each other...” Eugeo blinked again, smiling as his tears rolled down his cheeks, “I couldn’t do it six years ago, but... n-now I finally got to...”

Kirito wrapped an arm around his shoulder, holding him close as he cried. “T-tell me the Sacred art! Something that can help! I-I... _I can’t...”_

With the last of his strength, Eugeo leaned upward, softly kissing Kirito. His voice was completely gone. He  didn’t care  about the Taboo Index in this moment. If he didn’t do this now... Kirito would never know his true feelings. There was no pain in his right eye like he expected to feel... his entire body must’ve gone into shock. As their lips parted, Eugeo felt Kiritos tears splash onto his face. He desperately wanted to wipe away those tears, tell Kirito aloud that he loved him... but...

He faded into darkness with his final thought:

_ This was more than enough. _

* * *

Kirito clung onto Eugeo as close as he could, his eyes overflowing with tears as Eugeos eyes slipped shut...  _ No... _

The ground shook beneath with with each step Ugachi took towards him. The voice he heard directly behind him shook him to his very core. Ugachi hissed,

_ “_ _Your turn now...”_  


Kirito saw  ** red. **

He gripped onto his sword with his non-injured arm, round-house slashing into Ugachi with a fierce cry. Ugachi reciprocated by slashing back, only managing to slice air as Kirito skidded back on his feet, using the icy ground to his advantage. He roared at Ugachi,

“My name is Kirito the swordman... and I’m going to kick!”

Kirito speared his sword next to Ugachis head, making him lose balance, disoriented.

“your!”

He slammed the sole of his boot into the thickness of Ugachis neck, only stopping when he sensed something snap. 

_ “ass!” _

Kirito stabbed his sword through Ugachis head, twisting the sword at its hilt before Ugachi finally stopped his struggling. Kirito wrenched his sword out of Ugachis head and leaned back,  staring down the other goblins that were scattered around the room. They raised their weapons at him. 

“Fights over. Your boss is dead. You wanna die the same way? Then step up. If you wanna live, go back to the dark territory!” Kirito fully snapped, the sound of his own voice nearly making him wince. He sounded completely insane... in that moment he truly was insane.

The goblins seemed to understand, seeing the murderous glare in his eyes, and ran into one of the many caves that seemingly lead to the Dark Territory.

Kiritos sword clattered to the ground as he ran back to Eugeo.  Eugeo...  his best friend... his...  _ he didn’t even know.  _ Eugeo  _ had  _ to be okay. Kirito scraped his knees on the rigid stone as he skidded to Eugeos side and drew open his Stacia Window. His breath sucked in sharply.

_ Shit.  _ Eugeo only had seven percent of his life left and with each passing second it only decreased more. Kirito acted fast, dragging himself towards the wagon that Selka was in, pulling himself to his feet as he grabbed onto her, trying to jostle her awake. He wailed, “ _S-Selka! _ Wake up!  _ Please!” _

Eugeo needed help, and he needed it  now.  Selka slowly stirred, a hand moving up to brush the hair out of her face, “Kiri-to... what are you doing here?” she mumbled, wiping her eyes.

“We came to take you back... can you walk?” Kirito hurriedly asked, desperate to get back to Eugeos side.

Selka blinked slowly, “in a bit... my legs are numb and—“ Kirito scooped her up, garnering the strength to run her over to Eugeos side before falling hard onto his knee, almost dropping her. _There was no time for this!_ Selka squeaked in her surprise, “ _K-Kirito!_ Put me down!”

He let her go, “Please help!  Eugeo needs your help, he’s hurt  really bad!”  Kirito blubbered, the cracks in his voice almost making the words he was sputtering unrecognizable, _“_ _He’s dying!” _

Selka gasped, her eyes widening in horror, “My Sacred arts skills might not be enough... his wound is too deep.”

Kirito lurched forward, his hand grabbing onto hers as he begged, “ P-please! I’ll do anything...  just try! Eugeo said you wanted to be like Alice, you  _ can  _ be like Alice!”

He tore his hand out of hers,  _ he went too far,  _ he repeated shakily, _“_ _Please...” _

Selka bowed her head, the gears turning in her skull before she held her hand back out for Kirito to take. “I can try a dangerous, high ranking Sacred art. It’s just... it may kill us.”

Kirito grabbed onto the hand she held out, bracing himself, “ _I don’t care. _ If that’s the case, then make sure it only kills me.”

Selka curtly nodded and began her chant, 

“System Call: Transfer Human Unit Durability, right hand to left!”

The light of Selkas magic danced around them as Kirito was hit by a wave of light-headedness, his and Selkas life slowly draining into Eugeo.  


“Give... him... more...” Kirito ordered, overcome by dizziness and his vision completely blanking out. A quiet whisper rang in his ear, 

“Kirito, Eugeo, come find me... at the central cathedral.”

The world around him begun to get even more hazy as he tried to whip his head around to figure out who whispered into his ear, but found he could only sluggishly turn his head. He... he was going to pass out again... 

Right before he collapsed, he heard Eugeos voice call out to him, 

_ “Kirito!”  _


	9. Breaking the rules/Like you

Bits and pieces of a variety of scenes played over and over in Eugeos head as he sat, slumped over on the desk.

After he had awoken in the cave, Kirito had passed out. Selka was able to somehow move both of them onto the wooden wagon and pull them  all the way  back to Rulid. Selka really was way stronger than she looked. Once they had gotten back to the church, Sister Azalia had been kind enough to call in a doctor from the next town over, Zakkaria. The doctor came, administered both he and Kirito some medicine to help them recover faster, and took a look at their wounds. 

Eugeo twisted his neck around to look at Kirito, who was resting peacefully, sound asleep on the bed.

While he had only a single bandage wrapped around the wound on his stomach... Kirito had a lot more injuries. They ranged from multiple small cuts in his back from the shattered ice, to the large purple bruise on his stomach where he had been kicked, and then there was that sizable gash on his arm that Eugeo assumed was where the edge of a blade had grazed him...

Eugeo swallowed hard, beating back the urge to cry.  _ It was all his fault that Kirito was like this right now. _

At least... he thought it was. His memory was hazy, fading in and out with new details slowly but surely coming back to him. Since Selka was (thankfully) unconscious for most of the ordeal, she was only able to tell him what had happened after Kirito woke her up, so she couldn’t help him with this. All he could think to do is replay what he knew over and over, hoping a new piece of the story would rush back to him. Is this how Kirito felt  every day  not being able to recall his past life? Completely disoriented,  aware  of certain events, with large, blaring gaps in between?

Eugeo groaned into the desk,  what a _hellish_ existence that must be.

It had taken him hours, but now he almost remembered everything.  _One final push_ ,  he thought to himself, just think it through one more time, and the answer will be there.

_ How many times has he told himself that in the past day? _

He allowed his eyes to sink closed, concentrating the best he could.  What had happened?  How did they end up like this? It slowly began to come back to him. They had traveled to the northern caves to save Selka, he could remember fighting some goblins, Kirito got injured, Eugeo had attacked the goblin that hurt Kirito, the goblin injured  him, then... then...

_ He kissed Kirito. _

Eugeos eyes widened in terror as he clapped a hand over his mouth. His legs jutted straight out, nearly tipping him over in his chair before he raked his nails into the wood of the desk to keep himself in place. _They broke a clause in the Taboo Index! _ But... they were still here.  _How were they still here?_ Since he kissed Kirito, an Integrity Knight should’ve—

His breath stuttered as he had a realization. All this time he’s been  _ thinking  _ about kissing Kirito. The  intent  to kiss him was there... and yet there was no pain in his right eye. So... did... they  _ not  _ break the Taboo Index? It’s been longer than a day since they kissed, so an Integrity Knight should’ve come to claim them by now.

There was  no way!  The only way they could have  possibly  gotten away with it is if one of them was a girl, and even  that  was unlikely.  If  one of them were a girl, Eugeo could easily chalk them being able to kiss as an accidental engagement, as engaged couples could kiss moderately. But... they were both guys, at least He _assumed _ they were both guys. He was  _ well aware  _ that he wasn’t a girl... so...

His gaze lingered back over to the sleeping Kirito. 

...He definitely was cute enough to be a girl, he had big round eyes with pretty eyelashes, and his skin was really rosy around the cheeks, also—

Eugeo nearly smacked himself. There was  _ no way _ Kirito could be a girl! His voice was way too deep, also even though he was skinny, he had lots of muscle, and Eugeo couldn’t deny that a couple of times, when Kirito wasn’t looking, he would sneak peaks around his... Kirito definitely had something girls don’t have.

Eugeo chest tightened up as he anxiously gripped at the cotton of his t-shirt, leaning over the wooden desk as he fought back tears. All he wanted was for Kirito to be safe and happy, and he  _ jeopardized  _ that by forcing him to commit a taboo. What would Kirito think of him now? Would Kirito hate him now that he knew how he felt?  _Stacia_ ,  that was his first kiss! Was that Kiritos first kiss? It had to be unless he was already married or engaged... _Was he married or engaged before he lost his memories?! What was— _

“Hey Eugeo...”

Eugeo gasped, blinking his tears away and snapping his head around to look at Kirito who was currently attempting to get up from the bed. Eugeo stood rapidly, nearly knocking over his chair in order to lightly push Kirito back onto the bed. “Stop! Don’t move, you haven’t healed enough yet!”

Eugeo instantly knew that had been a bad idea as he felt a harsh stinging around the wound on his stomach. He reflexively wrapped his arm around himself, involuntarily sinking to his knees from the waves of pain he was experiencing. Eugeo opened his eyes at the feeling of Kirito closing a hand around his wrist, then swiftly and painlessly pulling him onto the bed... on top of him.  _ W-what was he doing? _

Kirito looked up at Eugeo, a lazy smile on his face, “Looks like you aren’t completely healed either.”

Eugeo looked down at Kirito as he laid on top of him. Wasn’t this hurting him? Kirito  _ literally  _ had injuries all over his body... there’s no way that Eugeo laying on top of him  couldn’t  hurt. Eugeo remained perfectly still, worried that if he tried to get up he’d cause Kirito even more pain. He had already caused him enough pain. Kirito stared up at the ceiling and spoke again, now softer, his joking tone from earlier nowhere to be seen.

“Hey... do you remember what you did in the cave?”

Eugeo sucked in a sharp breath,  _K-Kirito remembered what he did?_ His heart thumped hard in the depths of his chest, almost violently, as if it were trying to break free and run away, kind of like what he wanted to do at the moment. Eugeo forced his response out, not being able to retain his nervous stuttering, 

“I-I do...”

Eugeo was caught off guard by Kirito placing his hand on the back of his head, gently guiding his face into the center of his chest. Eugeos cheek pressed against Kiritos warmth, breathing in quick at just how fast he could hear Kiritos heart beating. He kept his focus on the lit lantern on the desk as his breathing shallowed, not looking at Kirito who was going to  _ hate him— _

“I feel the same way about you.”

Eugeos chest expanded as he sucked in a shuddering gasp, his eyes blown wide open. _Was this real?_ Had he fallen asleep at the desk and now, Goddess Stacia was punishing him by giving him his greatest desire in dream-form, only to tear it away from him once he woke up? For the grave sin he’s committed, he couldn’t say that he didn’t deserve it. Kirito suddenly squeezed his arms around him, his entire body quaking,

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you...”

Eugeo whipped his head up to look at Kiritos face, he was... _crying._

“You  did  protect me, Kirito. You saved me and Selka. Don’t think that I don’t know about the spell you guys used to save me... Selka told me the lengths you went to in order to save my life.” Eugeo smiled up at him, tears forming in his eyes, “You’re so reckless... D-didn’t you know that if I took any longer to wake up... _you would’ve...”_ he swallowed down his words, he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. He  couldn’t  say that if he had even taken another  _ two minutes  _ to wake up... Kirito wouldn’t be alive.

Eugeo let out a small huff, balling his hand into a fist and weakly knocking it against Kiritos chest, subtly checking if it was solid... if this was real. Just in case it was real, he had chosen the one area he knew that Kirito hadn’t been injured in. A strained laugh left him as it finally hit him that Kirito was solid, he was here, and he was real.  _ It really wasn’t a dream.  _ If he  didn’t  laugh right now, he feared that he would break down. All these new emotions he was experiencing were too overwhelming, he knew if he started crying now... he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to stop. Kirito tightened his hold around Eugeo, whispering into his ear, 

“You’re one to talk, look at what  _ you  _ did. You’ve never even fought with a sword before, and yet you came to my rescue. I couldn’t just  _ not  _ do anything. I wanted to come to your rescue too... I’m so happy that you’re alive, Eugeo.”

At that, Eugeo completely broke, silently but outwardly crying into Kiritos chest.  _ That’s what he was upset about?  _ Not that  he  himself had come to the brink of death... but _him?_ Kirito brought his hand back to his hair, gently petting him to try and soothe him. “Eugeo...”

_“Idiot.”_ Eugeo sniffled, “When you collapsed on us, I was so scared that you might not wake up ever again.”

Kirito sat up, cradling Eugeo in his lap as he brought a hand to Eugeos cheek, wiping away the tears that had begun to pool around his eyes, “I’m sorry... this is all my fault. If I hadn’t told Selka...”

Eugeo interrupted him, “No... I’m the  _ real  _ idiot here.  It’s all my fault.  I’m the one who exposed our hiding spot,” he looked away from Kirito in shame, “I’m the one who made us break the Taboo Index. _I_ _ didn’t even think—“ _

Kiritos eyes flew open wide in shock, both of his hands flying up to cup his face, his thumbs softly brushing his cheeks, “Y-you did?  How? ”

Eugeo averted his gaze, his cheeks squishing in Kirito's hold, “Our kiss... that went against the Taboo Index. I don’t know why... for some reason I guess it  didn’t  go against the Taboo Index since nobody was sent to arrest us.”

“So what you’re saying is... you broke a rule?” Kirito smiled gleefully.

Eugeo nodded, dumbfounded at how  _ happy  _ Kirito seemed at the premise that his stupidity could’ve damned them both to be executed. “You... you aren’t mad? _We broke the_ _ Taboo Index, _ _Kirito!_ I could’ve gotten you killed! I didn’t even think when I was doing that because I was so sure I was about to...” Eugeo trailed off as Kirito leaned forward, capturing his lips in a warm, gentle kiss. After a moment, he pulled back, leaving only inches between his face, and Eugeos crimson one.

 _He... he really just did that!_ Eugeos blush traveled to the tips of his ears. That...  felt _so nice..._

Kirito looked into his eyes as he spoke, “Eugeo... listen to me. You are _not_ an idiot. There is  nothing  wrong with breaking the rules when a rule isn’t fair. If we wanna be together... If we want to kiss. No law is going to keep us apart.”

Eugeo didn’t think he could feel more confused in this moment. His right eye  _ should  _ hurt right now as it always did when he thought about breaking a rule in the Taboo Index. Kirito didn’t seem to be in any pain either...  _ Them being together was possible?  _

It was then when he realized... Kirito wasn’t in pain. Had his life increased at all? 

“How’s your life doing? Ever since yesterday I’ve wanted to check, but... I thought it would be rude to do that without your permission.”

Kirito curiously held his hand out in front of himself and drew open his Stacia Window, his tired eyes shooting open wide as he skimmed over the information, a big smile spread across his face, “My object control authority went up! And my life...” the grin on his face immediately fell, “is around forty percent.”

Thumping back down onto the bed and threading his fingers through his hair, Kirito groaned, “I took a lot more damage than I thought I did.”

“That’s great!” Eugeo sighed out, relieved. That was much better than Kirito had been the night before, when the doctor had first administered the medication. 

Thinking of the day before at all made Eugeo nauseous, but he couldn’t deny how lucky they both had been. Kirito was lucky that the medication had taken immediate effect, and Eugeo was lucky that the doctor had only looked at his stomach. If he had happened to pull his shirt up any further...

Well, he’d probably have some difficult questions to answer.   


“So what about your life?” Kirito mumbled dazedly, “You nearly gave me a heart attack when I saw you only had seven percent.”

Now that he thought about it, Kirito was likely not feeling the pain from his injuries due to the high dosage of medication. Even though he had been given a much smaller dosage than Kirito, the wound on his stomach had already completely closed, even if he could still feel the tenderness of it whenever he moved his waist. He slid open his own Stacia Window and smiled,

“I’m bordering on eighty percent right now, but you and Selka healing me did most of that though. Speaking of Selka... do you want me to go get her? I tried to tell her that she doesn’t need to apologize, but ever since yesterday she’s wanted to. Stacia knows she’s apologized to me fifty times since we got back.”

Kirito sighed, wrapping his arms around him and squeezing him lightly around his torso, “Just a little longer...”

Eugeos eyes slipped shut as he bathed in warmth, the tenseness in his muscles completely evaporating.This was  _ supposed  _ to be wrong... all these thoughts and feelings he was experiencing... they were a sin! They were...but... 

How could something so wrong feel so right?

At the sound of the bedroom door clicking open, Eugeo opened his eyes to see Selka carrying two plates of what he could only assume was some type of stew by its smell. She looked past him at Kirito, her expression lighting up, 

“You’re awake! Are you in any pain? Is there anything you need?” She fussed, completely ignoring that the two boys were cuddling right in front of her. 

“I’m all good, Selka...” Kirito yawned, his eyes drooping shut, “Thanks for wheeling us back.. and saving Eugeo... and saving me... you’re the real MVP...” he said, drifting off into sleep with his hair sifting into his eyes.

At that, Selka shot Eugeo a questioning look.

“I don’t know either,” He said, answering her unasked question, “Wherever he’s from has a weird dialect.”

After quietly chatting for a little while, Selka placed the plates down on the desk, “I’ll leave your dinners here, and I’ll let you get some rest. Also I checked in with my father, you are free from your calling for a day so you can rest.”

Eugeo could tell that even after a full day, Selka was still worried. She had luckily managed to go physically unscathed, but he was certain that what had happened had scared her.

“Thank you, Selka.” He smiled warmly, “Please don’t worry too much...Kirito and I don’t blame you for what happened. I should’ve told you what happened to Alice years ago. I’m sorry it took you so long to get an answer.”

“You aren’t to blame either!” Selka said, “Kirito told me that you blamed yourself for what happened to Alice. But you’re not to blame.”

He nodded passively, not really believing her. He  wished  that was true.

She turned to the doorway, looking over her shoulder, smiling knowingly at him, “One more thing before I go... Kirito’s a really lucky guy. I hope you know that.”

With that, she took off out the door and down the hallway.

Eugeos brow furrowed as he wondered what  that  was about. Kirito was a lucky guy? What was...

His face burned iron-hot as he realized...  _ he was still on top of Kirito.  _ Had she realized that they were closer than the Taboo Index would allow?

He sighed in disbelief, allowing his face to drop down onto Kiritos chest.  This was really happening.  Selka didn’t hate him even though she knew what happened and Kirito didn’t hate him  _ and _ he felt the same way...Eugeo looked up at Kiritos sleeping face, noticing how much more peaceful he looked than that day he was carried into town.

Eugeo brushed the sleek strands of hair out of Kiritos eyes, wondering where he got all that strength from. There was no hesitation in his actions when he fought those goblins... even with whatever disaster he had faced before, _he pushed through!_

All he wanted to do right now is become stronger, just as strong as Kirito had been in that cave. No matter what... he’d find a way to see Alice again, all while becoming strong enough to fight beside Kirito.

Maybe one day, he’d even have the strength to show Kirito what he was most ashamed of.

He smiled contently as he nuzzled into the warmth of Kiritos chest, drifting off into sleep with Kiritos arms still wrapped around him.  
  


* * *

Kirito leaned back against the wooden shed, taking in the warmth of the sun as he waited for Eugeo to get the blue rose sword. His back accidentally grazed against the wood, the sting making him wince a little. Although at this point Eugeo had been completely healed, Kirito still had a few cuts on his back that needed to heal. The pain was nothing that he couldn’t handle, but it still surprised him when anything rubbed up against his shoulders.

Kirito stared in wonder at the sight of Eugeo emerging from the shed, holding the sword effortlessly. Looks like that hunch he had was right, it _was_ the object control authority that was preventing them from wielding it.

Eugeo experimentally swung the sword through the air, cocking his head to the side and staring down at the sword. “Kirito, how did you swing it before? Whenever you do it it seems like there’s so much power to it,” He extended the sword out to him, “Can you show me?”

Kirito couldn’t bring himself to refuse. With what had happened in the cave three days before, he felt as though he should’ve been  more afraid... but...

Kirito closed his hand around the swords icy blue hilt, a rush of excitement flowing through him, through his neck, down the length of his arm as he swiftly swung the sword. He slashed the sword through the air, the force of his swing visibly distorting it and causing the clothes on their backs to flutter in the wind. 

_ He found his love for swords again. _

Kirito lifted his head back up, met with a magical twinkle in Eugeos eyes, the curiosity, a birth of something magnificent. He had noticed Eugeos strategic use of light against the goblins and his rookie technique in handling a blade. It brought him back to those first few hours he played SAO, the rush and excitement of trying something new.

Kirito grinned at him, “Your turn,” he placed the sword in Eugeos hands, “I bet you could swing it just as easy. Just... here.”

He placed his hands on Eugeos hips, tapping his foot against Eugeos ankle to make him shift it slightly, right into the perfect position. “There we go, try again now. Focus on where you want to hit, take a breath, and release.”

Eugeo stared down the ginormous tree before him, taking a deep breath through his nose before slicing into the tree with a cry. Kirito was knocked into a back-step, looking up when Eugeo let out a gasp.

Kirito was stunned into silence at the sight before him. The power of Eugeos hit had carved a dent around  the entire circumference of the tree.

Eugeo choked. “It’s... possible? The Gigas Cedar falling is really possible?!”, he turned, his eyes traveling up the swords blade as it gleamed in the sunlight, his line of sight landing on Kirito. “You... you made it possible! You...”

Kirito smiled at him, “That one was all you, Eugeo.”

Eugeo stepped forward, his eyes solid and confident, his grasp tightening around the blue rose sword, “Kirito... will you teach me how to use a sword? If so... I can get Alice back!”

Kirito took another step back, this time in surprise. Eugeo wanted to learn from  him? There was no denying that Eugeo had shown great potential in that cave. If he trained him... Eugeo could become a great swordsman.

Even so... Kirito was still hesitant. Nothing feels better than having the power to protect those around you, but that power is a double edged sword. It also becomes your responsibility when someone gets hurt.

“Alice and her family have suffered so much... All because of me...” Eugeo teared up, sinking to his knees, ”I couldn’t save her. For the past six years I’ve never stopped regretting it!”

Bowing his head to Kirito, Eugeo pleaded, “I want to become strong! I want to keep from making that mistake... so I could fight! I want to break th **e— ** “ Eugeos hand flew up to his eye, wincing as his sword clobbered against the grass, “ _ah!_ ”

Kirito dropped down to his knees, his hands grasping at Eugeos shoulders, “ _Eugeo!_ What’s wrong? Are you sure you’re completely healed? Don’t strain yourself so much! I’ll—“

Eugeos uncovered eye glanced up at him, panting, “I want...*huff*... to be like you. So I can get back what I lost years ago. When I lost Alice, I also lost something very precious to me. Whenever I’m around you, I feel like I did when I was a kid... like the world is full of hope. I want to stay by your side, and rescue Alice.”

Kirito huffed out a laugh, pulling Eugeo towards him and stuffing him into a hug. The way he had said that almost sounded like a marriage proposal.

Well, even if it was... he probably wouldn’t say no.

“Okay, you’re on” Kirito accepted, “I’ll teach you everything I know. But don’t think I’m going to go easy on you.”  


Eugeo removed his hand from shielding his eye, a big smile spreading across his face. “That’s what I was hoping to hear. Do you remember what your sword style was called?”

Kiritos heart pulsed hard in his chest, Eugeo had a real talent for for making him give in, making him slowly but surely open up, making him just a little stronger than he was before. He was ready for whatever this would bring, he smirked,

“The Aincrad style.”


	10. The Gigas Cedar

Kirito expertly slashed the blue rose sword against the Gigas Cedar, the only sound he could hear being the whistling of the sword against the wind. He had always believed that his sword slicing through the air was the most beautiful sound there was, but now... he had discovered an even better sound.

After taking one final slash, he pulled back and admired the progress that he and Eugeo had made over the past week. Looking at the tree, he remembered how hard they trained to get to this point. They had trained every day, in rain or shine, and were on their way to achieve what so many thought to be impossible. Ever since he had woken up this morning, he had felt it... the feeling that today was the day that the Gigas Cedar would fall.

Sheathing the sword and leaning it against the tree, Kirito walked over to where Eugeo was napping peacefully and kneeled next to him.

Just as Kirito lifted his hand to wake Eugeo, he stopped, taking in the way Eugeos hair shone in the suns light. He looked... like an angel. Waking him up when he looked  this  adorable almost seemed cruel. It had to be done though, or else Eugeo would probably get mad that he tried to do his half of the work again.

“Hey you,” he said, poking Eugeos cheek, “time to wake up. It’s your turn.”

Kiritos heart skipped a beat as Eugeo sleepily nuzzled against his fingertips, a gentle smile curling up onto his face...

_ So cute. _

“Mmm...” Eugeo groaned softly, eyes fluttering open, “Kirito...  uh!”

All of a sudden, Kirito could feel the rushing heat of the cheek against his hand as Eugeos movements came to a screeching halt. He smiled,

“Mornin sleeping beauty, have a good dream?”

Eugeo sat up fast, his hands flying up to cover the redness in his cheeks, “S-sorry! I didn’t mean to fall asleep. How long was I out?”

“About three hours,” Kirito shifted his position so he was laying comfortably on his side, “With how hard you’ve been working, I think you’ve earned the right to nap. I think I might try to take one too...”

He huffed out a relaxed sigh, his eyes slipping shut as the summer air refreshed his lungs. Waiting to hear his new favorite sound, he listened to the shuffling noises of movement Eugeo made as he stood up, crossing from the sunlight into the shade and stepping over him to retrieve the blue rose sword.

This process likely would have been much faster if  both  of them could work on the tree at the same time, but since his sword wasn’t a divine object like Eugeos, it would probably break if he attempted to use it against the tree. But then again, its not like he minded being able to take frequent rest breaks.

A feeling of satisfaction overcame him as at the sound of Eugeo unsheathing his sword and skillfully slashing it against wood. The only thing better than the sound of him using a sword was the sound of  _ Eugeo  _ using a sword. It was simply unbelievable to him that in less than two weeks, Eugeo had already come so far with his sword skills.

Placing his hands behind his head, he stretched his legs out on the dry grass, crossing one over the other as he fully appreciated the cool shade of the Gigas Cedar. The noises of the world around him drowned out as he sank deeper into his thoughts.

Theres been something that’s been bothering him for a while now. Something about what Eugeo told him back in the cave had stuck with him...

_ Me, you, and Alice made a promise... We promised to protect each other. _

Why would Eugeo say something like that? It was impossible, he  _ knew  _ that it was impossible...

Except that maybe it wasn’t.

During his first and only session in the STL, he had been hooked up to it for three days—real word time. With the accelerated rate of time in the Underworld, his fluctlight had lived in this world for far longer than that,  years  probably. It was a small possibility that during that session, he met Alice and Eugeo... and...

_ Blank. _

His brow furrowed as he pushed his mind harder, trying to break through into the memories Higa had locked away. There was no way to permanently erase memories, and even if there was, there was no way anyone at RATH would ever want to erase them as there was no way to copy them either. With this mental block... there was no way he could remember on his own.

...But maybe Eugeo could. 

“Kirito, are you awake?”

In a split second, Kirito had  attempted  to sit up but found himself thumping back onto the ground in pain, bringing a hand up to rub at his the aching spot on his forehead. A disgruntled whine escaped his throat, “ _Ow! _ _What the hell?_ ”

“Ahhh” Eugeo groaned, palming his equally sore forehead, “Thats what  _ I  _ should be asking...”

Sitting up successfully this time, Kirito turned his head to see Eugeo splayed out on his back next to him. Beginning to piece together what just happened, his cheeks heated up at the realization that with how close Eugeos voice had sounded a moment ago, he must’ve been mere inches from his face. He couldn’t understand why  that  was making him feel so flustered,  they’ve kissed before, dammit!  _ Twice even!  _

He scooted closer to Eugeo, putting aside his own pain for a moment, “You okay? I really hit you hard...” he shifted onto his knees, “Is it bleeding? Let me see it.”

Before Eugeo could protest, and he  _ would  _ protest, Kirito had used one hand to guide Eugeos away and the other to push his bangs back, exposing his forehead. After inspecting it, Kirito sighed, “It’ll probably be a nasty bruise, sorry about that.”

“I’m alright, don’t worry about me so much,” Eugeo wore a teasing smile, “You’re hopeless sometimes, you know that? Always getting sucked into your own head like that... it’s like you go off into your own little world.”

“Hardly!  I’m not  _ that  _ bad! ”  Kirito huffed, pulling his hand back, “Besides, it’s not like I’m the only one at fault here. How was I supposed to know you were going to be right above my face?”

“I-I... well” Eugeo erupted into a blush, looking anywhere but at him, he sputtered, ” _I wasn’t doing anything bad!”_

Kirito could only blink at him, entirely too confused by that response. He couldn’t understand why Eugeo was acting so embarrassed, if anything the only one who should be embarrassed was himself, he was the one to smack his forehead into Eugeos, after all.  


“What  were  you trying to do then?”

Somehow, Eugeo reddened even more, almost to an impossible degree, he squeaked, _“Nothing!_ ”

Now, Kirito knew that he was bad at reading people, but even  he  could tell something was up. Normally he wouldn’t have pushed this, but he was real curious to why Eugeo had even gotten that close in the first place...

An evil smile bloomed on his face as he had the perfect idea of what he would do next.

Eugeos gaze flickered back to him for a second.

“Kirito? Why are you looking at me like— _ ah!”  _ Eugeo yelped as Kirito seized him, swiftly tumbling them down the small hill and pinning him with his weight once they hit the bottom, leaving him completely trapped. Grinning like a madman, Kirito set his plan into motion. He gave Eugeo no time to recover from the shock before dipping his hands under his shirt to tickle him mercilessly. 

Eugeo laughed, attempting to break free from Kiritos hold, “Kiri—*huff*  _no please mer—_ *hah!*”

“You want mercy?” Kirito asked, leaning in close to Eugeos ear, “Then spill what you were doing.”

Red-faced and wheezing, Eugeo gripped the front of his shirt.

_ “Never!” _

In an attempt to free himself, Eugeo tried to hook his leg around Kiritos and flip their positions, but Kirito stood firm, continuing his assault on Eugeos sides. Hearing the sound of Eugeos laughter as he writhed and howled beneath him made him realize... 

He liked the sound of Eugeos laugh more than the sound of a sword. 

Feelings had never been something Kirito had been good at understanding, be it others or his own. When he would think about how he felt about Eugeo, though, his mind only produced a single word.  


Love.

He had been planning to confess,  _ really  _ confess. Not like that first time where he was basically drugged and had his inhibitions lowered. For now, he was just looking for the right moment. But would Eugeo want to be officially his? He didn’t even know how he would start that conversation—

_ I knew I’d find you boys goofing off! _

Kiritos hands froze at Eugeos sides, his head immediately whipping to the side to stare at the small boulder a couple of feet away from them. This feeling... why did he feel as though they had done this before? Turning back to boy beneath him, he questioned, 

“Can I ask you something? About something you said in the cave, right before you passed out.”

Eugeo immediately stopped struggling to break free, responding with a small nod and urging him to continue. 

“I don’t know if you remember, but it sounded like you thought you, Alice, and me were friends before. Do you remember what that was about?”

Eugeo pressed his lips together, squinting in concentration as he thought it over for a moment.

“Yes, I remember... But we only just met, so I don’t know where all that came from,” Eugeo said, smiling calmly as he looked over Kiritos shoulder at the sky, “Its like... at that moment... I could see it as clear as day! You, Alice, and me...” he trailed off, closing his eyes, “We were born on the same day, grew up together here. We were even together the day that Alice was taken away...”

From the brief description that Higa had given him, the Underworld was extremely big and had a large population. It was extremely unlikely that they had met during his dive, he knew that, this  _ could  _ be just a really weird coincidence. Besides, if he and Eugeo had met before, Eugeo probably would’ve recognized him when they first met.

“I don’t remember anything like that, you hit your head or something?” Kirito asked with a small laugh.

“No,” Eugeo opened his eyes to look at him, jabbing two fingers into his forehead, “ You  did.”

“System Call: Generate Luminous element... Restore.”

Kiritos eyes widened as the faded ache in his forehead instantly evaporated into nothing, his mouth hanging open in shock. 

“You surprised?” Eugeo asked, “Alice taught me that one.”

Kirito immediately rolled off of him, knowing if he stayed on top of him any longer... Eugeo would feel the *ahem*  _ influence  _ he had on him. He stuttered, “T-thanks.”

And then Kirito remembered,  _ Alice,  _ maybe that voice he heard belonged to Alice!

“Another thing..before you passed out, did you maybe hear... a voice?” 

Eugeo tilted his head, sending him a questioning look, “No, I was totally unconscious so I didn’t hear a thing. Why? Did you hear a voice?” 

Kirito sighed, “Nah... guess I dreamed it.”

Maybe it wasn’t real after all. Maybe he hallucinated from blood loss. Wait  _ could _ he even hallucinate in this world? He really needed to make a list of questions to ask Kikuoka and Higa for when he got back to the real world one day.

Sheepishly looking down at his lap, Eugeo mumbled, “A-about what I was trying to do...”

Looking back at Eugeo, seeing how guilty he looked...something immediately clicked in Kiritos mind.

“Huh, almost forgot about that” Kirito said, leaning in closer to Eugeo, “Let me guess... you were trying to steal a kiss?”

Not confirming or denying his theory, Eugeo looked down and away, and Kirito instantly knew that he hit the nail on the head. Propping himself up on his knees, he scooted even closer to Eugeo.

Eyes widening, Eugeo stammered, “Wha-what are you doing?”

Kirito leaned forward, gently kissing the spot he hit on Eugeos forehead. Closing his eyes, he tried his best to send a message with that kiss.

_ Please don’t be too embarrassed. I would’ve liked it if you did that. _

“Nothing bad.” Kirito smiled and pulled back, standing up and making his way over to the Gigas Cedar, he drew open its Stacia Window, “It’s no healing spell, but—“

His line of sight landing on the health bar, he stopped, almost not believing the number he was seeing.

6738/320826

One more good hit.

Over his shoulder, he heard Eugeos breath catch in his throat. He bent down to pick up the blue rose sword and held it out to Eugeo.  


“You ready to do this?”

Eugeo smiled, taking a long look at the Gigas Cedar before responding.

“I’m ready.”

Standing off to the side, Kirito watched as Eugeo grasped the sword and got into the fighting stance he had taught him. Sliding his foot back, Eugeo held a hand out between himself and the Gigas Cedar, facing his entire body toward the target and holding his sword high in the air behind him. No matter where Kirito went, be it SAO, GGO, ALO, or in the real world, he was always criticized for his fighting stance... but even with its flaws, it still worked.

Boots skidding against dirt, Eugeo lunged at the tree, the swing of his sword emitting a flash of light.

In a single moment, the tree that had stood for three-hundred years and outlived five woodcutters came crashing to the ground.

* * *

  
As the Gigas Cedar, the Demon tree, finally came down, all Eugeo could do was stare at the place it once stood in.

It all didn’t feel real to him in these first few seconds.  Never, not in a hundred, or a million years had he expected to live to see this. No air passed through his lungs, he had completely forgotten how to breathe.

Looking down at the ginormous stump, it took a couple of moments for it to register that they had done it... They had  _ actually  _ done it.

Eugeo blinked, brought back to reality as he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind.

“The sky looks much prettier now, don’tcha think?” Kirito smiled, resting his chin on Eugeos shoulder.

Hesitantly, Eugeo slowly lifted his gaze from the stump to the sky. Kirito was absolutely right. Without the tree in the way, the sky looked endless, azure shades beautifully blending into each other with no branches akin to prison bars standing in the way. Tears gathered in his eyes as it hit him...

_ He was free. _

“Kirito.”

“Yeah?”

“...I had a really good dream.”

By the time they had began walking back towards Rulid, Solus had already begun to set, bursting the entire sky out into a fiery red. As the sheds door clicked shut behind Eugeo, Kirito piped up, “So, what’s the next step in our master plan to rescue Alice?”

_ The next step? _

In that moment, Eugeo realized that he had never planned this far, because he had never thought that the Gigas Cedar falling was even possible. It was a dream come true... his destiny. It never occurred to him what would come after. For now, he only had a single answer. 

“Survive tomorrow.”

Raising an eyebrow, Kirito asked, “What’s tomorrow?”

“Ah, that’s right... you wouldn’t know,” Eugeo begun to explain, “It’s a custom in Rulid, once a person has fulfilled their calling, the entire village holds a celebration. Then, I’ll have to announce what I’ve chosen as my next calling.”

Kirito nodded in response, satisfied with his explanation.

As Eugeos foot crossed past the line into the town square, he stumbled backwards, being unexpectedly yanked into a hug.

“Is it really true?! You guys really cut down the Demon tree?” Selkas voice rung loudly in his ear, making him flinch away. Although they had gotten closer since the goblin incident, he never expected her to do  _ that. _ Alice was the exact same way, always pouncing on him when he least expected it.

“Yeah!” Eugeo smiled, “I can hardly believe it either...” he trailed off, glancing at Kirito who was goofily grinning at the heartwarming scene in front of him. His heart melted a little...

_ What a smile. _

Selka turned to face Kirito, holding her hand out, “Kirito, do you have your room key? I’m going to need it for a moment. Don’t worry, you aren’t getting kicked out or anything.”

“Uh sure, one sec.” Kirito answered, rifling through his pockets. After a few moments, he came up with the key and handed it to Selka.

As soon as the key hit her hand, Selka moved seamlessly, grabbing onto Eugeo and pulling him into another hug, wrapping her arm around his neck and shoving her mouth right next to his ear. She whispered to him, “ Good luck,”  before pulling back and sprinting away.

Kirito stood still, staring at the spot she was just in, “Did she just  _ steal  _ my key?!”

Eugeos fingers closed around the skeleton key that Selka subtly slipped into his hand during their embrace, holding it up to Kirito to show him that he  _ hadn’t  _ just become homeless. Even  if  Selka kicked Kirito out for some reason, there was no way Eugeo would let him go without shelter.

“Did she tell you which room that key is for?” Kirito asked.

“No,” Eugeo sighed, exasperated. Selka tried so hard to be smooth that she forgot to actually tell him which room the key opened.

Eugeos head shot back up as Kirito snatched the key from his fingers, quickly filling the empty space with his own hand. “Okay, let’s go find it! I’m curious now.”

It had taken about a half hour of testing the key out on doors before one finally unlocked. The door was at the end of the hallway, in the opposite direction of Kiritos former room.

Eugeo couldn’t help but stare once the door swung open, revealing a beautifully decorated room. In the center was a queen-sized bed, covered in a puffy white blanket that looked far more comfortable than anything he could ever afford. 

_ Selka had really gone all out. _

Sidestepping past him and scanning the room, Kirito turned to face him.

“Hey Eugeo... wanna sleep over?”

They hadn’t slept in the same bed since the goblin incident. Even though these thoughts and feelings he was having was a sin, the idea of it made his heart race...

_ Maybe going to hell wouldn’t be so bad. _

“Sure!” Eugeo beamed, “Just gotta head home to grab some clothes!

He knew that he was probably acting way more excited about this than he should be, but he  just couldn’t help it!  Other than Alice, he had never had a best friend before. He never envisioned himself having one after losing Alice, but now that he had one, _it felt incredible!_

Before Eugeo could make it out of the door, Kirito quickly grabbed onto his hand, his eyes solid as he spoke, 

“Eugeo... when you get back, I want to ask you something.”  


Eugeo nodded, squeezing Kiritos hand before releasing it. As quickly as he could, he dashed through the halls of the church, down the creaky stairs, and out to the streets of Rulid in the direction of his house. 

He made it there in record speed, almost ten minutes. Rushing, he ran into the room he shared with his brothers. If he was fast enough, he would be able to go in and out without coming across anyone. His parents and brothers were likely out in the field, prepping for the next harvest. 

Grabbing the first empty bag he could get his hands on, he threw the first pieces of sleepwear he could find into it. He didn’t want to keep Kirito waiting too long. A voice in the doorway nearly made Eugeo jump out of his skin.

“I heard you completed your calling, congrats!” Sulinea said, leaning against the doorframe. “So, what do you think you’re going to do?”  


Eugeo sighed in relief,  it was just Sulinea.

“I’ve decided to become a swordsman and travel the land. I know... it’s pretty ambitious for someone like me.” He said shyly, settling down on his bed.

He fully aware that no sane person would ever look at him and think, “swordsman”, so he didn’t blame her if she laughed. His breath stilled in his lungs, waiting for it to come.

It didn’t. 

“I disagree,” Sulinea strolled over to the bed closest to his, plopping down onto her stomach and swinging her feet in the air, “I think it suits you quite well. Remember that little sword your friend got you for your eleventh birthday? You always looked so happy whenever you played with it.”

Eugeo stared down at the bag in his hand, not quite sure how to react to that. With the exception of Selka, this was the first time he had heard anyone acknowledge Alice’s existence after what happened to her.

“Anyway,” Sulinea continued, having been met with silence. “What are you planning on wearing for the celebration? You need to look good for tomorrow...” her gaze lowered to the bag in his hand, her eyebrows wiggling, “and tonight.”

Eugeo smiled at her, “I haven’t chosen a celebration outfit yet. As for pajamas though...” he looked down into the bag at its contents, “For tonight I have... a yellow sleep shirt, green shorts, a—“

“I’m going to stop you right there.” Sulinea sprang up from the bed, interrupting him, “Brother, I love you, but you have no sense of style. You’re going to look like an ear of corn.”

Oh goddesses, she was right, he  _ would  _ look like an ear of corn!

His eyes locked onto Sulinea, following her as she rummaged through his drawers for a couple of minutes, surveying each piece of clothing before carefully selecting a white sleep shirt and light blue shorts for tonight. For the celebration, she chose out a white tunic with blue accents, matched with a pair of gray pants.

Folding and packing all the clothes into his bag, she commented with a smile, “Blue was always the color you looked best in.”

“Thanks Suli,” He took the bag from her before walking towards the door, “I’ll be sure to introduce you tomorrow.”

“Wait! You forgot to tell me his name. I want details!” Sulinea whined, flopping down onto the bed like a child.

Eugeo froze. How did she know that the person he was seeing was a  he?  Before he had a chance to open his mouth, she had already started talking.

“Eugeo... I’ve watched you grow up. I know you, and you  definitely  don’t like women in that way. If you can find a way to make it work, then I’m happy for you.” 

He stood, absolutely stunned into silence. She could even read his thoughts now? Now  _ that  _ was scary.

“Kirito.” He answered, placing his hand on the doorknob, “I’ll give you some more details tomorrow, I’ve been keeping him waiting.”

“Alright, see you tomorrow Eugeooo!” She yelled out to him on his way out. He ran, the chilly air of the night filling him with excitement. Stopping to catch his breath, he looked up at the sky in the direction the Gigas Cedar had once stood. He sucked in a breath, eyes sparkling in awe.

_ Lunaria. _


	11. Taking responsibility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *SMUT WARNING*  
> (Also feels warning too)

Long before he had met Eugeo, Kirito had only ever had a single romantic relationship... with _Asuna._

He had fallen for Asuna  hard  during their time trapped in the death game that was SAO. She was his sole motivation for surviving each back-breaking day... his reason for fighting altogether. He could still remember how valiantly they had fought in order to keep the other alive. They had created a family in the two years they spent together in Aincrad. They bought their own corner of the woods... adopted Yui as their child. They had done it all together and Kirito couldn’t have been happier, even if he was kept from the real world, he was  _truly_ living  each day with Asuna by his side.

That all changed on November seventh, 2024... that day he woke up in the hospital. 

When he had discovered that Asuna was trapped in another game, Alfheim Online, he had the booming realization that he was completely powerless. Without a sword and a target to lunge at... he couldn’t protect anyone. Not his friends, not Asuna, and not even himself when he needed it. Without Asuna by his side... he had merely become a shell of his former self.

Watching that bastard Sugou torture her... he couldn’t do a single thing to stop it. He tried _so hard_ to save her. It was only with the the help of Akihiko Kayabas digital consciousness that he managed to rescue her at all. The _final_ time he held a sword...  


and then, Asuna was finally free.

At the time, he still loved her dearly, but he wasn’t the same strong person that she needed to be with... the hero she had fell in love with in Aincrad.

He only fell even deeper into his own depression after they had broken up. He stopped eating, he could only focus long enough to do the bare minimum of work to pass in his class, and even when he took that part-time job beta testing the STL from Kikuoka... he only did it so he could have an excuse not to be awake anymore... to not be himself. Even with all those surprise dates Asuna had forced him to go on, he didn’t think he’d ever find another girl that could make him feel the way she did. 

Well... in the end he was right. He found a guy instead.  


As Kirito finished moving his stuff from the old room he had been staying in, he heard the chime of the eight o’clock bell. He sat himself down on the side of the bed, which was way bigger than he was accustomed to. He had done all he could to try not to overthink while Eugeo was out, busying himself with choosing out his best pair of pajamas. He had found a dark gray t-shirt to wear with a pair of black and white plaid boxers, an outfit he could  _ never  _ get away with wearing at a sleepover in the real word. This was one of the situations in which it was a blessing that he had no male friends his age: He never had to have sleepovers and risk waking up the other person with his nightmares... or potentially reveal the scars he had carved onto his arms.

Kirito didn’t understand the psychology of it all, but while diving in the STL, he hadn’t felt that urge to self harm that had plagued his mind ever since he woke up in the hospital all those years ago... Maybe it was now that he could look at his forearms without seeing all the scars he had made... he didn’t feel a need to add more. He sometimes wondered if that feeling would come back when he woke up again one day... when he would come back to the real world. 

He stared at the outfit that he had folded neatly(well what  _ he  _ considered to be neat) on the oak desk. When he had first appeared here in the Underworld, all he had were the clothes on his back. Luckily, Eugeo was able to find some of his brothers’ old clothes that they had grown out of to give to him. He had originally protested against taking them, he didn’t want to accept that kindness because he hadn’t felt like he earned any of it. In the end he accepted because Eugeo had told him that he would never wear their old clothes since he preferred to wear brighter, more vibrant colors while his brothers seemed to wear lots of grays and blacks. Now that he thought about it... Eugeo didn’t really talk about his brothers that often. 

The thing that never failed to bring a smile to his face is just how kind Eugeo was to him. Even  _ if _he turned him down, he knew that Eugeo would do it in the kindest way possible... and it would probably end up hurting more than if he just broke off their friendship and left him forever.

He shook his head, as if it would somehow shake away the anxiety ridden thoughts from his brain. It wouldn’t help him to think like that, not  now.  Not right before he was about to ask—

“I’m back!” Eugeo announced, lingering in the doorway with an olive green rucksack in hand.

Kirito caught himself smiling at the boy, and he made no effort to conceal the joy in his expression. It had felt like  hours since they last saw each other, but he knew that in reality it couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes. 

“Welcome back” he smiled, patting the spot on the bed next to him, inviting Eugeo to sit. He felt this weird aura of confidence... that same one he had when he kissed Asuna that first time in SAO. In response, Eugeo rushed over to the oak desk, placing his bag on the chair before sitting himself down on the bed, leaving a fair amount of space between himself and Kirito.

  
Then there was silence. 

  
_Crap_. He forgot to plan what he was actually going to  say  when Eugeo got back. He glanced over at Eugeo, who stared infront of himself, his hands wringing together. Eugeo then squeaked out a sentence.

“So... Y-you wanted to ask me something?”

Kirito exhaled his stress, a small smile forming on his face. At least he wasn’t the only one who was nervous about this interaction. He was so nervous that it took everything in him to keep his legs from trembling. He leaned over the gap between them, placing his hand over Eugeos fidgeting ones.

“It’s okay Eugeo, there’s no need to feel so nervous. I promise I won’t ask anything bad” he assured, reaffirming his words with a small squeeze of his hand. He wanted this to be good experience for both of them, he wanted Eugeo to trust him enough to not be so nervous.

_ Well, maybe a little nervous was okay. Both of them were at least a little nervous. _

Eugeos fidgeting came to a sudden halt as he turned his head to look at Kiritos face, before slipping his hand into Kiritos.

“Can... can I move closer?” Eugeo asked, now appearing a smidge less nervous in comparison to a minute ago.

Kirito responded by pulling him closer by the hand. At this point did he even need to ask? Eugeo had to know that he’d  _always say yes_.

His confidence streamed back to him as he looked at Eugeos smiling face. This was the moment. This was the moment he was going to ask.

“ _Okay_. ” Kirito breathed out. No matter how many times he played through this moment in his head the past few days, he was never sure how to start it. 

_ Well, here goes nothing.  _

“Y’know... um... do you remember that thing I said that day after the goblin attack?” He began.

“Which thing? Do you mean when you called Selka a... what was it? An... “MVP”? You still haven’t told me what that means by the way” Eugeo tilted his head, completely oblivious to what thing Kirito was actually referring to.

What the... when had he done  _ that?! _ He thought he had been careful when it came to video game lingo... Well he  was basically drugged out of his mind that night. Apparently, according to Eugeo, he had gotten injured basically _everywhere._ When he woke up that day... he felt no pain whatsoever. He just thanked whatever god was out there that he didn’t blab anything else like that. He knew he still had to be careful about what he revealed to Eugeo. 

At first he didn’t want to tell Eugeo anything because he didn’t know him... but now he didn’t want to tell him anything in order to protect him. When Kikuoka had first told him about artificial fluctlights... artificial  _souls_... he had mentioned something about incidents of fluctlights collapsing. The theory Kikuoka had was that if an artificial fluctlight is informed of something that heavily conflicts with their world-view... that’s when a collapse could occur. For example, learning about their existence as an artificial fluctlight, or even the existence of the world outside this one.   
  
They had performed experiments where they cloned the fluctlights of adults, but once those fluctlights learned that they were just copies... they collapsed.   


But Eugeo _wasn’t_ a copied fluctlight... he was artificial. Would an artificial fluctlight collapse if it were to learn the nature of its existence? If so, how much information about the real world _could_ he reveal to Eugeo without potentially killing him? Kirito had  no idea. He certainly wasn’t going to try to find out with what he’d be risking. 

Kirito sputtered. “I—! _No_ not that! I meant when I told you how... um... how I felt about you.”

Eugeos back straightened at that, his eyes wide and curious to where this conversation was headed, staring straight at Kirito.

“I... I love you, Eugeo. I know that relationships like ours aren’t allowed here... but... I want you— _want to_ _ be  _ _with you!_ ” He quickly corrected himself. He  _ did _ want Eugeo in that way too, but he didn’t want to scare him off by telling him that now during his official love confession.  


“Will... do you want to be my boyfriend?” Kirito forced out the extremely awkward sentence. He didn’t _dare_ look at Eugeos face right now, he  already felt like sinking into the earths crust in embarrassment.

“Kirito...” Eugeos tone was soft... almost  _ too  _ soft. It was that gentle tone that always threatened to make Kirito break emotionally...that nearly pushed him to the point of being vulnerable. Kirito remained silent, waiting for what Eugeo had to say next. The moment of silence they had felt like it had lasted  _ years  _ until Eugeo spoke again.

“I... I’d love that.”

Kiritos face quickly turned back towards Eugeos, he had gotten close to his face again. All the tension in his shoulders finally released in that moment, causing them to drop as he leaned his entire body forward to passionately kiss Eugeo. He held nothing back, warm, soft lips moved with his as he lifted his hand to gently cup Eugeos cheek. 

There were no words in either the English  _ or  _ Japanese language to properly describe just how  relieved  he felt. Eugeo said yes.  _ He said yes!!!  _ They kissed for what felt like forever before their lips separated, leaving mere inches between their equally crimson-colored faces. Eugeo was panting from the heat of the kiss, looking straight at Kirito with half lidded eyes.

That look in his eyes...  _dangerous_. If Kirito didn’t look away now... he might do something that could make Eugeo uncomfortable. He forced himself to look away, even though he  **really didn’t want to**.

“Do you want to get changed into our pajamas now?” Kirito started, standing up from the bed. “It’s getting really late—“

He was held back from walking towards the desk by Eugeos hand grabbing onto his arm.

“—Um n-not yet...” Eugeo stuttered out, his blush beautifully painted across his cheeks. “It’s just that I’m...I’m...” Eugeo trailed off, turning his head away from Kirito and loosening his grip on his wrist.

Kirito was confused, what was wrong? He turned himself back around to face Eugeo.

_ Oh. _

Kirito immediately realized what the problem was. Eugeo was hard. If he had tried to change into his pajamas right then, it would be even more obvious. Had... had their kiss caused that? He had poured all of the passion he had into that kiss... and his desires. Well... Kirito had no problem taking responsibility for his actions. 

Seeing Eugeo in this state had flipped a switch somewhere inside of him. He felt this sudden rush of confidence flow through him as he spoke, leaning forward and placing his hand on Eugeos thigh firmly, his other hand placed on the bed.

“Eugeo... do you want me to do something about that?” 

This was new territory for both of them, but Kirito wasn’t afraid. He would back down if Eugeo didn’t want to do anything... but he was definitely ready to move in this direction. 

Kirito groped Eugeos thigh lightly, drawing out a small whimper from the flax-brown haired boy. Eugeo balled his hands into fists on his knees as his moved his eyes to finally meet Kiritos again.

“ _Y-yes_ _ please!_”

Kirito had to stop himself from snorting. Eugeo was  _ so polite _ even when asking him to get him off. Kirito found himself shifting forward, his hand dragging from Eugeos thigh to firmly cup the bulge in his pants. He pushed Eugeo back so he laid completely down on the bed, Kirito leaned over him, his arm next to the boys head supporting his weight. He teased Eugeo through his pants, applying a light amount of pressure as to not overwhelm him.

“What do you want me to do, Eugeo?” 

_”_ _Ohh!—“ _ Eugeo moaned, bucking his hips upward hard into Kiritos hold. “I’ve never done anything like this before... I don’t really know what to do” Eugeo admitted, breathing hard as he attempted to contain his responses to Kiritos movements.

Oh he was embarrassed?  _Cute_.

“That’s okay... How about... do you want me to give you a handjob?” He recommended. It was probably a good idea to start small and not jump straight into sex.  
  


After a brief moment of consideration, Eugeo nodded eagerly. That’s all it took for Kirito to slam his lips hard against Eugeos, kissing him roughly and passionately. Eugeo moaned into their kiss, shifting his hips upward so he could fervently unbutton his pants and slide them off. Kirito broke the kiss off in order to admire the sight of the blushing boy beneath him. Eugeos arms laid on the bed above his hair, his usually neat curls now jutted out in random directions all over his face. All he wore now was a gray long sleeve shirt with emerald colored boxers. But Kirito wasn’t exactly focused on the color... He paid more attention to the adorable little moans Eugeo was making as he began to palm him through the cloth of his boxers. His own pants began to grow tight at the delectable image of Eugeo in his underwear...  _ wanting  _ _him_.

It was intoxicating.

“K-Kirito...”

Kirito dipped his hand into Eugeos boxers and came in contact with his erection, pulling a squeak from the back of Eugeos throat. Eugeo swiftly moved his arm to attempt to cover his mouth, but Kirito was faster, transferring his weight onto his knee and grabbing Eugeos wrist to hold his hand against the bed.

“Don’t hold it in. I want to hear all the noises you make.”

“O-okay,” Eugeo managed to mumble out.

Kirito placed his face in the nook of Eugeos neck as he began to jack him off, slowly but firmly. He breathed in... Kirito could only describe Eugeos scent as fresh air on a perfect summers day. It was clear that Eugeo was shy when it came to this sort of thing. Sure, he could just give Eugeo what he wants and just go  _ a little  _ _bit faster_ , but he wouldn’t do that. Not yet anyway. Eugeo would have to ask him first, this was the best way for Eugeo to come out of his shell. At one particular stroke Eugeo whined, thrusting his hips hard into Kiritos hand, a needy look in his eyes.

Well, maybe he wasn’t  _ that  _ shy.

“Eugeo... tell me what you want” Kirito huskily whispered into his ear. He moved his mouth down, kissing and nipping at Eugeos neck, trying to locate his sweet spot. Eugeo groaned, tilting his chin up to give Kirito full access to his neck.

“I want... You can take the boxers off.”

Kirito obeyed, slipping the green boxers off and taking a moment to treasure the view he had of Eugeos swollen cock. It was flushed pink, the same shade that currently colored Eugeos cheeks. He quickly returned to Eugeos neck, making sure not to stare for too long. He didn’t want Eugeo to get all self conscious again. He dragged the tip of his tongue across a particular spot on Eugeos neck that made him cry out, bucking his hips into the air. Kirito ground his hips into Eugeos, giving him that friction that he was desperately yearning for.

“K-Kirito! I’m close—I need...” Eugeo began to plead for release, grinding his hips up against the soft cotton of Kiritos pants and the  _ not so soft _ cock  in  Kiritos pants. Kirito couldn’t take it. He had wanted to make Eugeo beg a little...

But that expression he had was simply impossible to say no to.

Kirito took hold of Eugeo and started pumping him at a slightly quickened pace. His face as red as his cock, Eugeo made no effort anymore to conceal the moans spilling out of his mouth. Kirito returned to the sensitive spot on Eugeos neck, outlining it completely with his tongue before sucking on it hard, which was just enough to send Eugeo over the edge. Eugeos back arched off the bed as he came hard into Kiritos hand. 

“ _OH_ —  Kiri... _nngh!_ _Haah!_ ”

Kirito stroked Eugeo through his orgasm, grinning like an idiot at the blissful expression that Eugeo had. 

Eugeo relaxed into the cushy bed beneath him, feeling completely loved.

“So... how was that?” Kirito asked, wiping off his hand and now beginning to feel slightly self conscious of everything he just did. Even when he was with Asuna, he had never initiated anything sexual before. It  _ literally _ took Asuna stripping naked in front of him to get the message across that she wanted him in that way.

Eugeo smiled lazily, pulling Kirito close to him, “That was great, but...” Eugeo spun them around, pinning Kirito down underneath him and straddling his hips.

“It’s not over yet... if you want to keep going?” Eugeo breathed, a bit unsure of himself.

_ Hell yes. _

Kirito answered Eugeo with a kiss, his hard-on leaving his pants extremely tight. Eugeo quickly but clumsily removed Kiritos shirt. Kirito noticed the satisfied grin that formed on Eugeos face as he stared at his torso.

“L-like what you see?” Kirito felt himself start to blush. He wasn’t used to being the one who was stared at.

“Yeah... um... it’s just...” Eugeo began, sliding his hand over the smoothness of Kiritos chest, “When I first found you... I noticed how light you felt. I’m really proud of you Kirito... you look like you’ve gained a little weight!”

Kiritos heart throbbed hard in his chest.He didn’t even realize that Eugeo noticed that he was underweight. He didn’t think he could possibly love the boy that was touching him more, but Eugeo just kept on finding new ways to surprise him.

Kirito shuddered as he felt Eugeo drag the tip of his tongue from his earlobe down to his nipple. Kirito whined, his cock was being neglected for all this time and to be honest, him being so turned on was beginning to hurt. Eugeo movedbackwards and placed the tips of his fingers on the top of Kiritos pants. Kirito raised his hips, aiding Eugeo in slipping both his pants and underwear off. Kirito groaned as his stiff cock finally sprang free from the captivity of his pants.

He felt a hand  _ finally  _ wrap around his cock and begin jerking it off at a medium speed. A shaky moan was released at the contact. He opened his eyes, he hadn’t even realized that he had closed them in the first place. Looking back to Eugeo, he noticed that his cock that had now sprung back up to life. There was something that he wanted to do.  
  


“Eu-Eugeo... can you— _*ngh!*_ lay down on the bed? I wanna try something.”

To Kiritos displeasure, Eugeo released his cock and laid back on the bed next to him. They laid on their sides, facing each other. Kirito scooted himself closer, their hard-ons now touching. At the contact, Kirito grunted while Eugeo whined out his moan.

“A-are you okay?” Kirito questioned. 

“Yeah... just don’t stop” Eugeo rolled his hips into Kiritos, releasing another involuntary whine.

Kirito obeyed,at this point he wasn’t sure if he even  _ could  _ stop. He began jerking off both of their cocks. His other hand moved to grip Eugeos shoulder hard, as if to somehow ground him from the insane amounts of pleasure coursing through his veins. Eugeos arms wrapped around his neck as Eugeo sharply inhaled his scent. Kirito let out a deep moan as he felt the warm wetness of Eugeos kisses and soft bites at the side of his neck. Kiritos stroking quickened and became more uneven as he felt himself close to cumming.

“Oh fuck,  _ fu—  _ _Eugeo_ ” Kirito moaned, eyes slammed shut and his body now moving on autopilot. Eugeo pulled his face closer to Kiritos so their foreheads were touching. He whispered to Kirito softly,

“Do it Kirito... let me see you.”   
  


Kirito came harder then he ever had before, his body spasming out of his control. His hips grinded hard against Eugeos, sliding against each other more smoothly now that their cocks were slick with Kiritos cum. Eugeo buried his face in Kiritos neck, his hips moving against Kiritos as he noisily rode out his second orgasm.

Kirito blinked slowly, he had nearly blanked out from the pleasure.  _ Damn_... why didn’t he try to initiate this sooner? He leaned down and pressed a kiss onto Eugeos lips. Eugeo softly kissed back, barely awake. Kirito couldn’t blame him for being tired.The day they just had was more eventful than any other day before.

Kirito got up from his comfortable place next to Eugeo and walked towards the desk to get a tissue, before cleaning the splotches of liquid from his stomach, then Eugeos. He looked over at Eugeo, who was now softly snoring. Kirito stifled his laugh, Eugeo was so tired that he didn’t even change out of the shirt he was wearing  or _at least_ put on some underwear. Kirito went to the desk and changed into the pajamas he chose for himself before opening Eugeos bag to get his. After a minute of searching, he found a white t-shirt and blue shorts to put on Eugeo. Moving back to Eugeo, he put the shorts on him, slowly and carefully as to not wake him up from his sleep. When he removed Eugeos gray shirt, the white t-shirt he was holding hit the floor before he even realized that he dropped it. He stared in absolute shock at Eugeos chest.

Eugeos entire chest was covered in deep, red scars.

Quickly and efficiently, he put the white t-shirt on Eugeo, taking extra care to not wake him up.

He slipped under the covers, knowing that there was no chance he’d be able to sleep after seeing what he just saw. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay~ I’ve never written smut before! This was definitely a fun experience though. 
> 
> Welcome to the calm before the storm.


	12. Doubt

_ It had been hours, and Kirito still hadn’t gotten any closer to falling asleep. _

He laid completely motionless on the bed, utterly mesmerized by the rising and falling of Eugeos chest with each relaxed breath he took. It had been hours,  _ he knew that it had been hours_ _,_ and yet he still couldn’t will himself to move and possibly relieve the stiffness in his joints. 

The feeling of dread buried deep underneath his skin had only intensified with each hushed ringing of the church bell outside. The bells chimes only served to remind him that time hadn’t frozen over, since he could never memorize exactly which tune correlated with which time of day. All he knew is that  another  hour had passed, another  meaningless  hour that he spent staring at Eugeo and allowing his mind to run wild beyond his control.

He blinked, wetting his painfully dry eyes as he glanced over Eugeos shoulder at the window for the near-hundredth time that night,  _ this morning?  _ Whatever.  _ Still no light. _ Silently seething in his frustration, his fingers quivered on the sheets.  _ Why couldn’t the sun just come up already?! _

His exhausted gaze returned back to Eugeo.  _ Yes_ _,_ he knew that what he was doing was creepy.  _ No,  _ at the moment, he just couldn’t bring himself to care about something like that. A heavy sigh forced itself through his lips. Not being able to fall asleep was torturous, even if he  _ did  _ enjoy staring at Eugeo as he rested peacefully. Unlike his body, his mind was  anything  but still. It raced against itself, stopping short and starting over as Kirito would sometimes find himself dazed in his half-sleepy state. The only thing that remained consistent is what he was thinking about:  _ the scars. _

How did Eugeo get those scars? How did he get so many? Was he attacked? Or maybe...

_ Did Eugeo do it to himself? _

Kirito  _shivered._ He didn’t want to consider that as a possibility... Eugeo feeling like he had no other option than to move through his pain by carving it into himself. Just the idea of that was enough to bring him to the brink of breaking down. He knew how unbearable that pain was... because he had done that exact same thing to himself.

It all started in SAO, After the death of the Moonlit Black Cats... he got in the habit of hiding out in a safe zone, and using a small dagger to slice himself open. Of course he never felt anything from it due to the games pain filter, he thought that it was fine at the time since the body he was harming wasn’t real, it wasn’t  _ really  him. _

He’d think: It didn’t even matter anyway, it’s not like it was hurting him.

The therapists he had would always ask him what drove him to do that, the answer to that was simple. He just... _needed _ a distraction. A way to punish himself for allowing every member of the guild to die in front of him. He just couldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop replaying that moment of Sachis death in his head over and over again—

He caught himself raking the tips of his nails into his forearm, immediately tearing them away once he realized what he was doing to himself.  _ Not again,  _ he couldn’t do that again. Back in the real world, it had taken him years to stop. His biggest regret was ever starting in the first place. In the real world, he would do it when he didn’t feel... real. When  _ his body  _ didn’t feel real. The pain would ground him, forcing him to believe that he was really there, he wasn’t being held hostage in SAO... 

_ He was home. _

Kirito blinked, the tears slowly leaking from his eyes and quietly dripping onto the bed. Finally, he willed himself to move, lifting his hand from the cushy blanket to softly glide it over the soft locks of Eugeos hair, clearing away the messy waves that had accumulated around his eyes. He knew that Eugeo felt guilt over what happened to Alice, but would he really go that far?  _ Would he really... _

_ He couldn’t take the waiting anymore. _

He leaned forward, tenderly pecking a kiss onto Eugeos forehead before carefully maneuvering Eugeos arms so they were no longer wrapped around him. It turned out that Eugeo was an  _ extremely  _ cuddly sleeper. He had pulled Kirito close, holding him loosely in his arms throughout most of the night. Once he had freed himself, he made sure to to not move around too much so he wouldn’t wake Eugeo. Quickly and quietly, he gathered the first outfit he could find for himself in his arms, making his way to the bathroom to change.

For the celebration tonight, he found a dark gray jumper with black pants and a pair of black boots. The clothes were slightly baggy on him, but they still looked presentable. 

He eyed his face in the bathroom mirror, it was slightly chubbier than when he last looked. Eugeo was right... he  _had_ gained a bit of weight. He was still by no means a healthy weight, but he was getting there. One day he’d get there. _He’d get better!_ He’d get...

...

_...Who the hell was he fooling? _

He blankly stared at himself in the mirror. The bathrooms lighting did him no favors in making him appear more awake, he had dark bags under his eyes...

_ He looked like absolute crap. _

If only Eugeo could see him now... how could someone possibly love this?! Love...  _love_ him? Oh god...  _ what was he going to do about Eugeo?  _

How was Eugeo going to react when confronted about the scars? If Kirito wasn’t careful... this could go south really fast. Eugeo could run away, break up with him, and if it was self harm...

_ He could relapse. _

Kirito shuddered, his hands flying to grip at the edges of the sink to hold himself up.  _ He couldn’t let that happen.  _ This wasn’t something he could just wing, he really had to think about what he was going to say.

If he was being honest, he wasn’t completely sure what he’d do if all of friends saw his scars. Only a couple of people were made aware of his self-harm, his family, the employees at Rath, and like the sleuth she is, Lizbeth had quickly figured it out. He wasn’t too keen on revealing his scars too anyone... he was ashamed of them. He wondered if Eugeo felt the same way about his own scars.

Moving slowly, he made his way down the stairs as quietly as possible, trying his best to avoid those spots in the wood that would creak and make obscene amounts of noise. There were many places in Rulid he could go, but there was only one place he could think of that would be good for thinking. He briskly walked through the halls of the church, If he was lucky, it would still be early enough that no one would be awake and he could leave without anyone—

“Good morning, Kirito! Are you leaving to get Eugeo a gift for the party?”

_ Shit. _

Kirito flipped around to see a tired-looking Selka standing directly behind him in her white nightgown, her long brunette hair tied up into pigtails.  _What was she even doing up this __early?!_ Kirito didn’t know  what  time it was, but it had to be  at most  four in the morning, if not earlier. Never again would he take the existence of clocks in the real world for granted, because for some messed up reason,  _ they didn’t exist here! _ Well actually, that wasn’t the complete truth. Eugeo had mentioned to him that all the clocks that existed were divine objects, extremely rare and usually owned by nobles. Other than that,  was  he _supposed_ to have gotten Eugeo a gift for this?

“Is this the type of party that you’re supposed to bring gifts?” He asked, attempting to keep his voice as normal-sounding as possible. There was many hours before the party was scheduled to start, but he was still worried that it still wasn’t enough time to find Eugeo something nice.“Also—why are you awake?”

Selka placed her hand on the stairs wooden barrister, a sad smile on her face, “I had a nightmare... you know, about that day. I stayed up for a while, and I caught you going down the stairs. Also, for the gift thing, it isn’t necessarily the type of party you’d get someone a gift for. It’s just that I couldn’t think of any other reason you’d be going out so early, why else would you try to sneak out without Eugeo?”

Kirito winced at her final words, it really  did  look like he was trying to sneak out. More importantly, he hadn’t realized that the goblin attack had such a large impact on her. Of all people,  _ he _ should’ve been the one to realize that even if you go physically unscathed after an attack... there’s still the mental aftermath. He gulped down his guilt, “Selka... you can come talk to me about it if you want. I can’t right now, but if you have another nightmare... I’m just a few doors away.”

Selka tilted her head, “Where are you going then, if it’s not to go get Eugeo a gift?”

Kirito sputtered out the first excuse that flashed in his mind, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his pants, “Just— just going for a walk.”

“...At three in the morning?” Selka furrowed her brow, a hint of doubt glaring in her eyes.

He faltered, “U-um... y- _yeah_...”

Kirito had to stop himself from grimacing at just how _suspicious_ he sounded. This was  bad.  Anyone with half a brain could tell that something was up, and if Selka started asking questions, he’d probably end up word-vomiting about Eugeos scars to her. He needed to leave  now.  He turned his back to her, “I really should be going, I’ll see you at the party!”

Kirito sped-walked out of the church, ignoring Selka when she called out to him again. He didn’t want to involve her in this, she had enough problems to deal with because of him.

Now that he was out here, maybe he  should  get Eugeo a gift. It wasn’t a bad idea. 

Now that he thought about it, he knew just what to get for Eugeo.

_____________________________

Eugeo snuggled deeper into the pillow he was clinging to as he heard a soft knock on the bedroom door. Cracking his eyes open, he twisted himself around to look at the window. There was no light... _ What time was it?  _ He couldn’t figure out  what would possess someone to knock on his door  _ this  _ early in the morning.

 _ Now  _ he understood why his brothers would get so annoyed with him whenever he’d wake them up ridiculously early. It wasn’t as if he woke them on purpose, but with his calling as a woodcutter, he’d always need to get up early in order to complete all of his tasks. Normally he didn’t mind, as he was a morning person... but right now, it was so early that he wasn’t sure that it  could  be considered morning. He bathed in the warmth that surrounded him, hoping that whoever it was would just go away so he could stay in bed _just a_ _ little bit longer. _

There was  another  knock at the door. He groaned into his pillow as he shuffled his feet around on the bed,  trying  to locate Kirito so he could get him to deal with whoever it was. Once his toes grazed the edge of the sheets, his eyes snapped open. Kirito wasn’t in the bed with him.  _ Where was Kirito? _

The person knocked a third time.

He puffed out a sigh as he tore himself from the warm, heavenly pull of his bed. If the person was this persistent that after  _ ten minutes  _ they wouldn’t stop knocking, it must be something important. As he moved to open the door, he lifted a hand to wipe at his mouth.  _Had he drooled in his sleep?_ Now he was a bit glad that Kirito wasn’t here to witness that. As soon as he twisted the doorknob, Selka quickly bursted into the room, giving him no time to invite her in. His voice slurred in his sleepy state, “Selka? Whud are you—“

Selka interrupted him, abruptly stepping closer to him and grasping at his forearms, jolting him even more awake, “ _Eugeo! _ Do you remember when you told me to keep a close eye on Kirito awhile ago?”

 _ What the heck?  _ Why did she seem so panicked? Why was she even awake? Eugeo was just made of questions right now, but even so he just kept quiet and nodded stiffly.

She tightened her grip slightly, “I think there’s something wrong with Kirito! About an hour ago, I caught him leaving the church and he was acting  really  strange. Did you guys have a fight last night or something?”

Eugeo yanked his arms out of Selkas hold, blushing fiercely as what happened last night came back to him.  _Oh Stacia last night_...  that was a first for him. He was so sleepy that he didn’t even recall last night until she had said that. He stuttered out, “U-um... no we *cough* we didn’t fight.”

“Then what happened?” Selka interrogated, placing her hands on her hips and being  far too innocent  for her own good.  


Eugeo needed to steer this conversation in a different direction, for  her  sake of not his own. If Selka, or  anyone  else found out what they had done... he would probably die from the embarrassment, and then he’d die  _ for real  _ because the Axiom Church would execute him. His face burned, probably resembling the reddest of tomatoes. “N-nothing important! You said you saw Kirito, did he say where he was going?”

“He told me that he was going for a walk.”

Eugeo paused, his mind blanking for a moment. “...Why’s that weird?”

“ _It was three in the morning!_ Who takes a walk that early?! I’m telling you, _something_ was off about him” Selka nearly facepalmed, but had the decency to stop herself.

Eugeo furrowed his brow, he couldn’t deny that she was right. That  was  odd behavior. The Goddess Solus hadn’t even risen the sun yet! Well... he  _is_ Kirito, after all. No matter how cool and dashing Eugeo thought he was, he was also a bit of an oddball with some unpredictable behaviors. Maybe he  _ would  _ take a walk before the crack of Solus.  


“Okay... I agree. It’s definitely weird of him to do that. Once Solus rises, let’s try to find him. I’ll go get dressed.”

Selka nodded, taking off to her own room before Eugeo heaved out a sigh, rummaging through his backpack to find the outfit that Sulinea picked out for him. There was  no way  he’d be able to fall back asleep after that conversation. After speedily dressing himself, he turned around to view the outfit through the mirror hung on the wall. Like always, she was right. She  did  have more style than he ever could. If only he could get away with wearing only black and look _incredible_ like Kirito could, he couldn’t help it though, he just  loved  color!

He exhaled in awe as he stared at his reflection through the silver mirror. Compared to that day he received his calling as a woodcutter, he looked so much older. Well... it  _ had  _ been seven years,  of course  he would have grown! Just a few months ago he turned seventeen, he was basically all grown up now,  almost an adult!  _ He was grown up... _

_ So why was he still so scared?_

___________________________

Kirito wandered along the stone paths of Rulid, a gift bag from the store he was just in in his hand. He had searched Rulids small market for  two hours  before he found what he was looking for.Luckily, he had managed to scrounge together just enough money from doing tasks for the villagers to afford something with good quality.

Usually on days that Eugeo was too busy to hang out with him, he’d try to do odd jobs around Rulid in order to make some money. It kind of reminded him of when he would spend entire days in SAO doing in-game quests. It was his only source of income since he hadn’t asked the village elder to assign him a calling. He had originally wanted to hunt some of the monsters that roamed outside the gates of Rulid, but Eugeo told him that hunting them went against the Taboo Index unless you were assigned the sacred task of hunter, or if it was in self-defense. 

As Kirito walked past the stump of the Gigas Cedar, he scanned the dead grass around it for any trace of a blue rose. He _doubted_ that he’d find one, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out for one. 

He eventually found himself near the river that was about half a mile past the stump. The weather was absolutely perfect today, the sun brightly shone throughout the sky, its heated rays shimmering beautifully against the flowing river.

It was a perfect spot to just sit and relax in, to just  _get away from it all._ A perfect place to think... he needed to figure out the best way to approach Eugeo about his scars.

Kirito kicked off his shoes and socks, rolling his pants up to his knees. He perched himself on one of the larger stones that bordered the river and dipped his feet into the lazy stream. He sighed, taking in the refreshing coolness of the water. The summer sun beaming down on him made the waters coldness  way  more relaxing.

Now, what was he going to say to Eugeo?

“Hey Eugeo, did you happen to be attacked when you were a child? I saw the scars—“

No... that gives him an easy way to lie out of it if it’s actually self harm. 

“Hey Eugeo, I want us to be completely honest with each other, so please tell me how—“

_ Ugh,_ He didn’t want to sound like he was forcing the information out of Eugeo. Not that one.

“Hey Eugeo, I know how hard it is to open up your self harm because I’ve done it before too and—“

No, that wouldn’t work. If Eugeo asked to see  where Kirito had self harmed, he wouldn’t have anything to show him since he wasn’t in his real body. Besides... there was always chance that it  _ wasn’t  _ self harm. 

“Hey Eugeo, I didn’t know how to tell you this but I have a scar fetish and—“

No!  _ What the hell was that supposed to be?! _ If anything Eugeos  _NEVER_ going to tell him about those scars if he heard him say that. No way.

Kirito faintly thumped the back of his head down on the rock he was sprawled out on, frustrated with himself. He lifted his arm above his eyes, shielding them from the suns blinding rays. His bare legs were still submerged in the slow-moving river, the chill of the water being the only thing keeping him awake.  


He was going absolutely  _ nowhere _ with this. He just wanted Eugeo to know that no matter how he got those scars, it didn’t change how he saw him... It didn’t change that he loved him. Kirito just wished he never saw it so he could stop being so  damn  curious about it.

...Maybe he should pretend he never saw it, and not bring it up to Eugeo at all. One of these days, Eugeo would eventually  _have_ to  take his shirt off in front of him, and he can ask naturally.  


_ But was that really the best he could do? _

____________________________

Eugeo couldn’t help but feel as though he’d done something wrong.

He slumped against the wooden backing of the bench, utterly defeated as he stared straight forward at the churches garden. Selka and him had searched for  hours, but Kirito was just nowhere to be found. He couldn’t think of a reason that Kirito would leave without saying anything,  _ it just didn’t make any sense!  Why would he— _

A hand flew up to his chest to grip at the fabric of his shirt as an uneasy thought occurred to him.

_ What if Kirito left because of what they did last night? _

A shaky breath left his lips, he  _ really  _ hoped that’s not why Kirito left. This distinct feeling lingered in the depths of his chest... it was as if he _should have_ realized something. Just out of his reach, a piece of information that would make everything make sense to him.

Eugeo remained on the wooden bench outside the garden, allowing himself to be swallowed up by his own thoughts.

_ All he wanted to do right now is talk to Kirito. _


End file.
